Study on Interfacial Strength Properties between Epoxy Resin and PBO Fiber Modified by Low-Temperature Plasma Treatment

Abstract

The effect on the low-temperature plasma treatment of PBO fiber and the interfacial strength properties between PBO fiber and epoxy resin was investigated. PBO fiber was modified by oxygen plasma treatment. The monofilament tensile test was carried out to investigate the existence of influence on the PBO fiber strength. The microdroplet test was performed to measure the interfacial shear strength. It was found from the experiments that the tensile strength of PBO fiber modified by plasma treatment was decreasing slightly in all the test specimens because the damage by the etching was confined to the skin layer. The interfacial shear strength between PBO fiber and epoxy resin was increased about 38.4% in comparison with non-treated PBO fiber. It became clear that it was because the carbonyl group and carboxyl group were introduced on the surface of PBO fiber from the result of XPS analysis.