It’s not so much the rough surface that makes super glue work so well on skin (although of course rough surfaces make most all adhesives stick better). It’s the abundance of water ions in your moist skin that readily kick off the polymerization process. That’s why it seems instant on your fingers but takes minutes to start polymerizing on many other surface types.
Our skin is a very rough surface, veritasium did a video on it
It’s not so much the rough surface that makes super glue work so well on skin (although of course rough surfaces make most all adhesives stick better). It’s the abundance of water ions in your moist skin that readily kick off the polymerization process. That’s why it seems instant on your fingers but takes minutes to start polymerizing on many other surface types.
loved that episode.