SYNOPSIST h e dependence of adhesion of four various UV-curable protective coatings of optical fibers t o the surface of fused silica on the time of UV irradiation was investigated. T h e maxima of adhesion were observed in short periods of time of curing. Comparison of adhesion values t o the hardness, gel content, and contact angles of water measured on the polymer surface revealed that adhesion of epoxyacrylate protective coatings of optical fibers depended on the inner structure of the polymer rather than on its surface properties. This observation was confirmed by IR studies.
Measurements have been made of the adhesion of liquid and UV-cured epoxyacrylates to a fused silica surface. The fused silica surface was dehydroxylated in the 200-900°C temperature range. Also, the contact angles of water, diiodomethane and formamide on the fused silica surface were measured. Using the contact angle results, the 'harmonic mean' method and the acid-base interactions approach, the dispersion (Lifshitz-van der Waals) and electron donor and electron acceptor components of the fused silica surface as well as epoxyacrylate polymer surface free energy were calculated. It was found that, probably because of the physically adsorbed water, the hydroxylated surface of the fused silica is basic and that the adhesion of the epoxyacrylate polymer to this surface depends on its basicity.
-The paper presents comparison of thermal and optical properties of the typical commercial available and manufactured in our laboratory poly(methyl metacrylate) polymer useful in polymer optical fibers technology. The thermal studies were made by thermogravimeter connected on-line with FT-IR and QMS spectrometer, the optical properties were characterized by spectral attenuation measurements. It was found that polymer obtained in our laboratory is characterized by higher temperature (about 100 0 C) of beginning mass loss occurred and lower attenuation then commercial available polymer.Microstructured optical fibers (MOFs) provide extra degrees of freedom in manipulating the optical properties of light, such as dispersion, nonlinearity, and birefringence [1][2][3][4][5]. Therefore they have attracted increased interest over the last two decades. Due to specific material properties, the technology of microstructured polymer optical fibers (mPOF) has been intensively developed in recent years. Polymer fibers may show better parameters than fibers made of silica glass in a variety of applications. One of the advantages is biological compatibility, which opens the possibility for medical applications. Moreover polymers have higher flexibility than silica glass, therefore can withstand much higher strains, which enables applications of polymer fibers as elongation sensors in a strain range unattainable for silica fibers [6]. In order to obtain a polymer optical fiber with the proper optical characteristics, it is necessary to prepare specific preform from which optical fibers are drawn or extruded. Now polymer optical fibers are mainly manufactured from poly(methyl methacrylate) PMMA (linear polymer), produced by the polymerization of methyl methacrylate. Unfortunately the main disadvantage of "PMMA optical fibers" is their very high losses, in comparison with "silica fibers", mainly caused by C-H bonds and impurities. In this letter we present the low loss poly(methyl metacrylate) polymer manufactured in our Laboratory. The manufactured from our polymer mPOF was characterized by significant decrease of the losses.* E-mail: pawel.mergo@poczta.umcs.lublin.pl A sample of "our PMMA" was prepared from methyl methacrylate (ALDRICH). In polymer technology two methods of polymerization are used -thermal and photopolimerization. The chemical reaction, essentially, takes place in the same way, except the source of initiation. Due to the crosslinking of the polymer during photopolymerization, this technique is not used in the polymer optical fibers technology. A very important issue in the production of materials for optical applications is their purity. Even a small amount of impurities can significantly decrease the transmission properties of the final product such as an optical fiber. Therefore, MMA was purified before starting the process of polymerization. The purification is performed by distillation process in under pressure conditions getting rid of impurities as well as undesirable inhibitor, which is added to ...
Adhesion of UV-curable polymer protective coatings of optical fibers to the fused silica surface was investigated. The method of adhesion determination of UV-cured polymers to cylindrical objects is presented.
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