Acrylic pressure sensitive adhesives

1. An acrylic pressure-sensitive adhesive composition comprising a solution or miscible blend consisting essentially of:

a. from 50 to 99% by weight of at least one hydrophobic C 1-22 alkyl (meth)acrylate copolymer,

b. at least one substantially water insoluble polyol oligomer having at least two terminal hydroxyl groups and a number average molecular weight of from 1000 to 20000 and selected from the group consisting of polyester polyols, acrylic polyols, polycarbonate polyols and polyether polyols,

c. at least one cross-linking agent selected from the group consisting of a transition metal complex and aluminum acetyl acetonate.

d. optionally at least one tackifying resin,

e. optionally at least one solvent, and

f. optionally at least one selected from the group consisting of: plasticizers, adhesion promoters, pigments, fillers, antioxidants and UV stabilizers.

2. The acrylic pressure sensitive adhesive composition according to claim 1 wherein:

a. is present in an amount of about 30 to 95% by weight,

b. is present in an amount of about 5 to 50% by weight,

c. is present in an amount of about 0.05 to 2.0% by weight,

d. is present in an amount of up to about 50% by weight,

e. is present in an amount of up to about 90% by weight and

f. is present in an amount of about 10% by weight.

3. The acrylic pressure-sensitive adhesive composition according to claim 1 wherein the (meth)acrylic copolymer comprises the reaction product of:

i) 50 to 99% by weight of at least one alkyl (meth)acrylate monomer having an alkyl group which contains 1 to 22 carbon atoms;

ii) 0 to 50% by weight of at least one other monomer selected from the group consisting of alkyl (meth)acrylate monomers having an alkyl group containing 1 to 22 carbon atoms, vinyl acetate and styrene; and

iii) 0.5 to 20% by weight of at least one polar monomer selected from the group consisting of monofunctional carboxylic acid monomers, multifunctional carboxylic acid monomers, monofunctional hydroxy monomers, multifunctional hydroxy monomers, cyanoalkyl acrylates, acrylamides, acrylonitriles, butanediol monoacrylate and vinyl pyrrolidone.

4. The acrylic pressure-sensitive adhesive composition according to claim 1 wherein the cross-linking agent c. is selected from the group consisting of transition metal acetyl acetonates and aluminum acetyl acetonate.

5. The acrylic pressure-sensitive adhesive composition according to claim 1 wherein the tackifying resin d. is selected from the group consisting of:

i) rosin acid, polymerized rosin acid, rosin ester and mixtures thereof;

ii) hydrogenated rosin acid, hydrogenated rosin ester and mixtures thereof;

iii) polyterpene and terpene phenolic resins;

iv) aromatic resins consisting of a reaction product of styrene, alpha-methyl styrene, vinyl toluene and mixtures thereof and

v) phenolic modified aromatic resins, benzoate resins, coumarone-indene resins, synthetic phenol resins, and mixtures thereof.

6. The acrylic pressure-sensitive adhesive composition according to claim 1 wherein the solvent of e. is selected from the group consisting of aliphatic esters, aliphatic hydrocarbons, halogenated aliphatic hydrocarbons, aromatic hydrocarbons, aliphatic alcohols, aliphatic ketones and mixtures thereof.

7. The acrylic pressure-sensitive adhesive composition according to claim 6 wherein the aliphatic hydrocarbons are heptane or hexane, the aromatic hydrocarbons are toluene or xylene, the aliphatic alcohols are methanol, ethanol or isopropanol, the aliphatic ketone is acetone and the aliphatic ester is ethyl acetate.

8. The acrylic pressure-sensitive adhesive composition according to claim 1 containing 40.1 to 2.0% by weight of an antioxidant or UV stabilizer.

9. An adhesive coated sheet material formed by coating a substrate sheet with the acrylic pressure-sensitive adhesive composition of claim 1 .

10. The acrylic pressure-sensitive adhesive composition according to claim 1 wherein the cross-linking agent c. is aluminum acetyl acetonate.