How do “reusable adhesives/stickers” work?
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The chemicals used don’t become less sticky unless they go through a chemical change. So, they’re just made of durable sticky materials. What usually happens that reduces their effectiveness, over time, is a combination of leaving a little bit of the material behind on what they were stuck to, and picking up dirt, dust, or a little bit of the material they were stuck to, resulting in there being less available adhesive to work for the next use.
Single-use adhesives are just either not as durable, go through some chemical change when used, or are so sticky that they can’t be easily separated from whatever they were stuck to.
So, in short, reusable adhesives are just less-effective adhesives.
Stick, remove, still sticky, stick again, remove, somewhat still sticky, stick again, remove, not sticky anymore, throw away
I work in stickers, it’s all in the chemicals used. There is one particular chemical (called tackifier) that makes your adhesive “tacky” which means it sticks hard as soon as it touches a surface so less of that chemical would make it stick but not hold as strong which would make easy to peel off and like the other comment said these properties won’t change unless they’re made to change by cleaning the adhesive with a chemical like Acetone or Isopropyl Alcohol.
Normal adhesive has a strong bond, then once dry creates a structure between the two surfaces with that strong bond. Reusable stickers use a gelatin like material that doesn’t dry out. The sticker is coated with a thin layer of strong adhesive, then gel. The gel has millions of pockets (like a sponge) that act like suction cups when you place it against something. When you peal it up, some of the pockets get torn or get filled with dirt, reducing it’s “stickiness”.
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