The invention refers to a photopolymerizable precursor of a pressure-sensitive thermosettable
adhesive, said precursor comprising: (i) from about 30% to about 80% by weight with respect to the
mass of the precursor of a photopolymerizable component, comprising a monomeric or prepolymeric syrup, said component exhibiting an overall
solubility parameter of between 10 and 11 and comprising (A) at least 30% by weight with respect to the
mass of the photopolymerizable component (i) of one or more ethylenically unsaturated monomers with a
solubility parameter of between 10 and 11.5 and less than 10% by weight with respect to the
mass of component (i) of one or more ethylenically unsaturated compounds with a
solubility parameter of more than 11.5, or (B) at least 50% by weight with respect to the mass of the photopolymerizable compound (i) of one or more ethylenically unsaturated monomers with a solubility parameter of between 9.5 and 11.5 and 10-30% by weight with respect to the mass of the photopolymerizable component (i) of one or more ethylenically unsaturated compounds with a solubility parameter of between 11.5 and 12.5 provided that in case (B) the precursor comprises between 3-15% by weight with respect to the mass of the precursor of one or more polymers with a solubility parameter of 10-12.5; (ii) from about 20 to about 70% by weight with respect to the mass of the precursor of one or more
epoxy resins and / or monomers; (iii) an effective amount of a
photoinitiator; and (iv) an effective amount of one or more nucleophilic latent hardeners for the
epoxy resins and / or
epoxy-containing monomers which are selected to provide an onset temperature of the epoxy curing reaction of between 40-100° C. when subjecting the
adhesive to a DSC scan at a rate of 20° C. / min. The invention furthermore refers to thermosettable adhesives which are obtainable by photopolymerization of said precursor and to thermoset adhesives which are obtainable by
thermal curing of said thermosettable adhesives. The thermosettable
adhesive of the invention is particularly useful for bonding a plastic substrate to other substrates such as
metal, glass,
ceramic, wood and plastics.