Abstract
Carbon fibers were surface treated by a continuous gas phase thermo-chemical treatment. The surface and the mechanical properties of the fibers were investigated before and after treatment and compared to the properties obtained with a conventional industrial electro-chemical surface treatment. The increase of the oxygen atomic content was much sharper, the surface chemistry was better controlled, and the tensile strength of the fibers increased slightly with the thermo-chemical surface treatment. The thermo-chemical surface treatment created a topography which amplitudes were under 10 nm, thus creating some mechanical interlocking with the matrix. The electro-chemical surface treatment did not generate such a topography. The improvement of interfacial adhesion with a vinyl ester matrix was limited, revealing that oxidation of the carbon fiber surface alone cannot tremendously improve the mechanical properties of carbon fiber-vinyl ester composites.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1120-1133 |
| Number of pages | 14 |
| Journal | Composites - Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing |
| Volume | 43 |
| Issue number | 7 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jul 2012 |
Funding
This research was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Office of Vehicle Technologies, as part of the Lightweighting Materials Program. A part of this research was done through the Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s High Temperature Materials Laboratory User Program, sponsored by the U. S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Vehicle Technologies Program and through the Shared Research Equipment (SHaRE) User Facility operated for the U. S. Department of Energy Office of Science by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Authors would like to thank Mr. Truman Bond and ReMax Lo. for their indispensible contribution to the development of the surface treatment technology. Zoltek, Hexion and Ashland Co. are sincerely thanked for providing the carbon fibers, the epoxy resin and its curing agent and the vinyl ester resin respectively. Mr. Ronny Lomax is thanked for his contribution in the acid digestion of the epoxy based composites. Ms. Laura Poland and Mr. Matthew Warren are sincerely acknowledged for the manufacturing and the testing of the single fiber tensile test coupons. Dr. Tolga Aytug is also acknowledged for his help with AFM imaging.
Keywords
- A. Carbon fiber
- A. Polymer-Matrix Composites (PMCs)
- B. Fiber/matrix bond
- B. Surface properties