Abstract
Carbon fibre reinforced poly-etherether-ketone (PEEK) and poly-phenylene-sulfide (PPS) composites were rapidly surface-treated by high-power UV light, and then adhesively bonded to aluminium 2024-T3 and carbon fibre/epoxy composites. The results of a single lap-shear joint test demonstrated that a UV-treatment lasting for 5 s was sufficient to prevent joint failure occurring at the composite/adhesive interfaces in all cases, e.g. it increased the failure strength of the PPS composite/aluminium joints from 11.1 MPa to 37.5 MPa. Moreover, the composite/adhesive interfaces performed well upon an exposure of the joints to an environment of high humidity and temperature for 8 weeks. Additionally, an investigation lasting for 6 months showed no degradation of the surface functionalisation from UV-irradiation. Overall, this work highlights high-power UV-irradiation a very promising method for surface preparation of thermoplastic composites (TPCs) for adhesive joining, i.e. TPC adhesive joints with excellent structural integrity can be obtained by using this rapid, eco-friendly and low-cost surface-treatment method.
Highlights
Carbon fibre reinforced polymers (CFRPs) are increasingly used in a wide variety of industries, including automotive, aerospace and wind energy sectors, due to their light weight, good structural performance, and excellent environmental resistance
This work shows the significant promise of a high-power Ultraviolet light (UV)-irradiation technique for rapid surface-activation of carbon fibre reinforced PEEK composites (PEEKC) and PPS composites (PPSC) for the adhesive bonding of dissimilar materials, i.e. aluminium alloy 2024-T3 and carbon fibre/epoxy composites (EpoxyC)
A short time UV-irradiation notably increased the amount of oxygen elements on the PEEKC and PPSC surfaces, and decreased their water contact angles
Summary
Carbon fibre reinforced polymers (CFRPs) are increasingly used in a wide variety of industries, including automotive, aerospace and wind energy sectors, due to their light weight, good structural performance, and excellent environmental resistance This introduces the challenge of joining CFRPs, to both themselves and other dissimilar materials, such as steel and aluminium. Kinloch et al [11,12,13,14,15] were the first to perform systematic investigations on the joining of TPCs using structural adhesives, and reported that obtaining high-strength adhesive joints for TPCs was far more difficult than for thermosetting composites (TSCs) This was due to the inherently low reactivity, small surface energies and weak polarities of the thermoplastics, that led to a poor compatibility between the TPCs and the adhesives, typically based on epoxies [4]. The performance of the adhesive joints upon humidity ageing and the stability of the surface functionalisation after the UV-treatment were investigated
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