Influence factors of internal structure and interfacial compatibility of UHMWPE fiber/SEBS resin composites: Processing parameters, structure of fiber and nature of resin

Abstract

This study investigates in detail the effects of processing parameters (pressure and temperature) on the internal structure and interfacial compatibility of unidirectional (UD) sheets of ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) fiber/styrene–ethylene–butylene–styrene (SEBS) resin composites by dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA) and T-peel tests. The variation of storage moduli of the composites with the processing pressure indicate that almost all of the resin phase had changed into the interfacial phase; the tanδ curves also testified that the ethylene–butylene (EB) segment of SEBS matrix was entangled with the molecular chains of polyethylene (PE) fibers. Moreover, the result of the T-peel tests of composites indicated that the pressure produces more significant changes than the temperature for both monofilm and no-film UD composites. Besides, the latter had higher adhesion strengths under the same processing conditions due to increased adhesion between the fiber and the resin. Next, high-density polyethylene (HDPE) modified SEBS resin was used as the matrix of the composites. Their interfacial adhesion strengths were found to increase slightly and the DMTA curves indicate that the crystallinity of the modified matrix increased with the content of HDPE resin. All of these benefit the improvement of the protection property of the composites.