The benefits of soft skin adhesives using silicone elastomer technology
Jennifer Gemo, Xavier Thomas, Audrey Wipret, Jason Siang & Alexis Bobenrieth, DuPont Liveo Healthcare, shares the benefits of soft skin adhesives using silicone elastomer technology.
Silicone skin adhesives for wearable medical devices include soft skin adhesives (SSAs), pressure sensitive adhesives (PSAs) and next-generation hybrid adhesive systems that incorporate the best properties of both.
The silicone soft skin adhesive technologies pioneered in the 1990s by what is today known as DuPont Liveo have become widely adopted by the market in advanced wound care and scar therapies.
Silicone elastomer technology
Silicone elastomers are made with a combination of polymers, reinforcing agents, a crosslinker and a catalyst; different combinations determine the type of elastomer produced: Heat Cured Rubber (HCR), Liquid Silicone Rubber (LSR), and Room Temperature Vulcanization (RTV).
Silicone elastomers are used in high-performance applications, they ensure long durability and reliability, even when exposed to a wide range of temperatures (from -50 °C to 250 °C).
Soft skin adhesives
DuPont Liveo SSAs are based on platinum-catalysed silicone elastomer technology – solventless and formulated to deliver suitable adhesion to skin. The physical properties of these adhesives lead to cohesive, self-adhering materials for biomedical applications.
Silicone SSAs offer gentle skin adhesion with low peel release force. They also are non-sensitising, non-irritating and non-cytotoxic. Consequently, they are ideal solutions to protect highly sensitive and fragile skin, allowing children, the elderly or patients with skin conditions to receive medical support outside of medical facilities.
In addition, their repositionability enables greater ease of use, cost-effectiveness and sustainability by avoiding device consumption in case of misapplication or detachment, thereby reducing waste. This benefit can be of value particularly in the context of growing adoption of smart medical patches for patient monitoring to enable device repositionability and atraumatic removal.
Benefits of silicone adhesives
Silicone technology has a more than 70-year history of safe, effective use in specialty medical and pharmaceutical applications with the strictest biocompatibility and quality requirements, such as drug delivery devices, monitoring and diagnostic devices, respiratory devices, urology and gynaecology devices, and more.
Today, for skin contact applications, silicone skin adhesives are recognised for their quality and versatility, as well as for their ability to offer atraumatic removal, repositionability, reliable long-lasting adhesion and comfortable wear. These adhesives can be designed not only to provide suitable adhesion performance for the application, but also to encourage improved patient compliance.
Empowering healthcare innovation
Wearable medical device manufacturers around the world are partnering with specialists in silicone skin adhesive technology -- including DuPont Liveo – to develop innovative wearable devices for people of all ages. These include wireless vital-sign monitors for premature infants, devices to report pressure ulcers in bedridden patients, and devices for day-to-day tracking of health metrics in people managing chronic conditions such as diabetes – the kinds of devices that support the global push toward broader, more accessible healthcare for all.
Silicone soft skin adhesives have the power to help wearable medical technology innovators develop devices with the potential to improve overall health and well-being for all people at all ages.
Recently, DuPont Liveo partnered with Singapore-based Aevice Health Pte in the development of the AeviceMD, a smart AI wearable stethoscope that provides continuous, connected care for at-home monitoring and early detection of asthma exacerbation.
Most asthma-related deaths occur in low-income and lower-middle-income countries, where underdiagnosis and undertreatment are frequent issues. While asthma affects both children and adults, it is the most common chronic disease among children, so Aevice created its wearable stethoscope specifically for children ages 2 and up. This required serious consideration of the highly sensitive, fragile nature of children’s skin.
Standard acrylic double-sided tape attachment solutions proved too harsh. But a DuPont Liveo soft skin adhesive typically used in advanced wound care provided Aevice Health with an alternative suited to the sensitive skin of children. The resulting attachment was a safe, comfortable, long-lasting solution with the ability to improve children’s experience, comfort and compliance.