Abstract
High-modulus polyethylene (PE) tapes were grafted with acrylic acid using a two-step procedure. The tapes were first subjected to He/Ar corona discharge, immediately followed by exposure of the corona-treated tapes to acrylic-acid-saturated He gas. Evidence for the grafting was provided by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, which showed the surface of the treated tapes to consist of 64% acrylic acid and 36% PE. The grafting of acrylic acid is confined to the outermost surface layers, as indicated by reflection infra-red spectroscopy. Pull-out tests showed that the corona grafting of acrylic acid improves adhesion to epoxy resins by a factor of eight. Moreover, the increased adhesion is not achieved at the expense of a decrease in mechanical properties of the high-modulus PE tapes.
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