Continuous Atmospheric Plasma Oxidation of Carbon Fibres: Influence on the Fibre Surface and Bulk Properties and Adhesion to Polyamide 12

Abstract

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.

Effects of sizing materials on the properties of carbon fiber-reinforced polyamide 6,6 composites

“…Particularly, carbon fiber (CF)‐reinforced thermoplastic composites are widely used in aerospace, enginery, marine, and automobile industries due to their superior properties such as high‐specific strength and stiffness, lower density, and flexible designs . In addition, the polyamides (PAs) have been studied as matrix material in thermoplastic composite due to their low cost, ease of handling, and good mechanical properties when processed with CF reinforcement .…”

Fast functionalization of multi-walled carbon nanotubes by an atmospheric pressure plasma jet

“…The process allows for the continuous treatment and feed-through of the CNTs and is therefore ideally suited for the in-line combination with the industrial CVD -synthesis of MWCNTs. Previously this plasma source has been studied for pretreatment and coating of polymers and metals and for the oxidation of carbon fibers [16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. The objective of this study is to achieve an efficient CNT functionalization without significantly damaging the CNT structure.…”

Advances in Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polyamide-Based Composite Materials

“…al. [64] functionalized carbon fiber using continuous atmospheric plasma oxidation (APO) method. The APO was found to influence the surface properties of fibers.…”