Le Yao, Yi Huang, Guoqing Chen, Ziqian Zhou, He Zhu, Qi Zhang, Shiping Zhu
Adhesive tapes with high adhesion strength are critical in applications from structural bonding, biomedical devices, to flexible electronics. However, their performance is fundamentally limited by creep-time-dependent deformation under sustained stress-which leads to irreversible failure in long-term applications. While transient non-covalent interactions are widely engineered to enhance short-term energy dissipation, they inherently compromise creep resistance due to their dynamic reversibility. Herein, this persistent challenge is addressed by designing anti-creep adhesive tapes through precise topological regulation of polymer networks. By systematically comparing linear, covalent-crosslink, and trapped-entanglement-dominated architectures, the entanglement-stabilized networks are demonstrated to achieve a three-orders-of-magnitude reduction in creep rate while maintaining strong interfacial adhesion. The unique combination of long-chain entanglements and spare crosslinks enables efficient elastic energy storage without sacrificing tackiness, resolving the trade-off between dynamic dissipation and permanent mechanical integrity. This work provides both a mechanistic framework for understanding creep in adhesive materials and a scalable strategy for developing durable, high-performance polymer adhesives.