Abstract

The aging effects of atmospheric plasma treatments on UHMPE fibers are studied. UHMPE fibers are treated for 0.5 and 1 min with He/O2/air gas and for 2 and 4 min with He/air gas by atmospheric pressure plasma on a capacitively coupled device at a frequency of 5 kHz. The samples are tested for fiber/epoxy interfacial shear strength at time intervals of 0, 3, 15 and 30 days after initial plasma treatment. Scanning electron microscopy shows micro-cracks on each set of treated fibers, which is not affected by aging over the 30 day study. Interfacial shear strengths (IFSS) for plasma-treated fibers are 2–3 times as high as that of the control. The IFSS for the plasma treated fibers remains constant up to 15 days and then decreases afterwards. XPS Analysis shows a slight increase in atomic concentration of oxygen and nitrogen for each plasma-treated sample. For the He/O2/air plasma-treated samples, XPS analysis shows an observable increase in C–OH bonds, C=O bonds and COOH bonds, while for the He/air plasma-treated samples, there is a slight increase in C–OH and O=C–O bonds. After 30 days, a decrease in oxygen content for all plasma-treated samples is manifested.

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