Patent ID: 7163741

Claim:
An article comprising a pressure sensitive adhesive in combination with a backing having first and second major surfaces, the adhesive having a rubber phase and comprising: (a) 100 parts by weight of a polymodal asymmetric elastomeric block copolymer; (b) at least one tackifier capable of increasing the T g of the rubber phase of the adhesive, said at least one tackifier being present in an amount sufficient to raise the calculated Fox T g of the rubber phase of the adhesive to greater than 245° K; (c) 0 to about 50 parts by weight of a crosslinking agent; and (d) 0 to about 300 parts by weight of a plasticizer; wherein the polymodal asymmetric elastomeric block copolymer has the formula QnY and comprises from about 4 to about 40 percent by weight of a polymerized monovinyl aromatic compound and from about 96 to about 60 percent by weight of polymerized conjugated diene, wherein: Q represents an individual arm of the block copolymer and has the formula S-B; n represents the number of arms Q in the block copolymer and is a whole number of at least 3; and Y is the residue of a multifunctional coupling agent; and further wherein: (a) S is a nonelastomeric polymer segment endblock of a polymerized monovinyl aromatic homopolymer, there being at least two different molecular weight endblocks in the copolymer, a higher molecular weight endblock and a lower molecular weight endblock, wherein: (i) the number average molecular weight of the higher molecular weight endblock (Mn)H is in the range of from about 5,000 to about 50,000; (ii) the number average molecular weight of the lower molecular weight endblock (Mn)L is in the range of from about 1,000 to about 10,000; and (iii) the ratio (Mn)H/(Mn)L is at least 1.25; and (b) B is an elastomeric polymer segment midblock which connects each arm to the residue of a multifunctional coupling agent (Y) and comprises a polymerized conjugated diene or combination of conjugated dienes; and wherein the adhesive forms a layer on at least a portion of at least one of the major surfaces of the backing and the article exhibits a 180° peel adhesion on high density polyethylene of at least 80 N/dm.