Interfacial Studies of Sized Carbon Fiber

Abstract

This study was performed to investigate the influence of sizing treatment on carbon fiber in respect of interfacial adhesion in composite materials, Epolam® 2025. Fortafil unsized carbon fiber was used to performed the experiment. The fiber was commercially surface treated and it was a polyacrylonitrile based carbon fiber with 3000 filament per strand. Epicure® 3370 was used as basic sizing chemical and dissolved in two types of solvent, ethanol and acetone for the comparison purpose. The single pull out test has been used to determine the influence of sizing on carbon fiber. The morphology of carbon fiber was observed by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The apparent interfacial strength IFSS values determined by pull out test for the Epicure® 3370/ethanol sized carbon fiber pointed to a good interfacial behaviour compared to the Epicure® 3370/acetone sized carbon fiber. The Epicure® 3370/ethanol sizing agent was found to be effective in promoting adhesion because of the chemical reactions between the sizing and Epolam® 2025 during the curing process. From this work, it showed that sized carbon fiber using Epicure® 3370 with addition of ethanol give higher mechanical properties of carbon fiber in terms of shear strength and also provided a good adhesion between fiber and matrix compared to the sizing chemical that contain acetone as a solvent.