Effects of surface treating methods of high-strength carbon fibers on interfacial properties of epoxy resin matrix composite

摘要

This paper aims to study the effects of surface treating methods, including electrolysis of anodic oxidation, sizing and heat treatment at 200 degrees C, on physical and chemical properties of T700 grade high-strength carbon fiber GQ4522. The fiber surface roughness, surface energy and chemical properties were analyzed for different treated carbon fibers, using atom force microscopy, contact angle, Fourier transformed infrared and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, respectively. The results show that the adopted surface treating methods significantly affect surface roughness, surface energy and active chemical groups of the studied carbon fibers. Electrolysis and sizing can increase the roughness, surface energy and chemical groups on surface, while heat treatment leads to decreases in surface energy and chemical groups due to chemical reaction of sizing. Then, unidirectional epoxy 5228 matrix composite laminates were prepared using different treated GQ4522 fibers, and interlaminar shear strength and flexural property were measured. It is revealed that the composite using electrolysis and sizing-fiber has the strongest interfacial bonding strength, indicating the important roles of the two treating processes on interfacial adhesion. Moreover, the composite using heat-treating fiber has lower mechanical properties, which is attributed to the decrease of chemical bonding between fiber surface and matrix after high temperature treatment of fiber. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.