Conventional liquid phase oxidation of multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) using concentrated acids generates contaminating debris that should be removed using aqueous base before further reaction.
Continuous atmospheric plasma oxidation (APO) was used to introduce oxygen functionalities to the surface of carbon fibres in an attempt to enhance interfacial adhesion between carbon fibres and polyamide-12 (PA-12). APO only affects the surface properties of the fibres while their bulk properties remained unchanged. Contact angle and f-potential measurements demonstrated that APO-treated fibres became significantly more hydrophilic due to the introduction of polar oxygen-containing groups on the fibre surface, which also resulted in an increase of surface energy on the carbon fibres. The interfacial shear strength of single carbon fibre/PA-12 model composites, determined by single fibre fragmentation tests, showed an increase from 40 to 83 MPa with up to 4 min of APO treatment time which confirms that the fibre/matrix interfacial adhesion was enhanced. This highlights that the incorporation of APO into composite manufacturing will allow tailoring of the fibre/ matrix interface.
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