Adhesional

Adhesional is an adjective that pertains to adhesion, the process by which molecules, cells, or materials stick to a surface or to one another. In technical usage, adhesional properties describe how effectively a substance can bond to a substrate, and can refer to adhesives themselves or to the capacity of surfaces to adhere to other substances.

In materials science and engineering, adhesional performance depends on bond strength, cohesion, surface energy, wettability, and roughness. Surface pretreatments such as chemical priming or plasma cleaning, and the use of coupling agents, can improve adhesional bonding. Common tests to quantify adhesional strength include lap shear, peel, and pull-off tests. The design of adhesional systems often aims to optimize interfacial chemistry and mechanical interlocking between bonded components.

In biology, adhesional interactions govern how cells and tissues attach to each other and to the extracellular matrix. Cell adhesion molecules, such as cadherins and integrins, mediate these contacts and influence development, signaling, and tissue organization. Microbial adhesion to surfaces affects colonization and infection. Methods to study biological adhesion include force measurements at the cellular level and quantitative assays of adhesion strength.

In medicine and dentistry, adhesional properties are relevant to the performance of surgical glues and tissue adhesives used to join tissues. Conversely, postoperative adhesions are fibrous bands that can form between tissues after surgery and may cause complications; products known as adhesion barriers or tissue glues aim to manage or reduce these adhesions.

Overall, adhesional terminology emphasizes the capacity to adhere, spanning materials, biology, and clinical applications, and is often used to distinguish between general adhesion concepts and specific adhesive technologies.