Coatings for glass fibers in a cementitious matrix

Despite the glass fiber being considered as a reinforcement of cementitious materials for several decades, the structural applications are limited by its poor corrosion resistance in a highly alkaline environment. Here, we describe an inexpensive and applicable process by which a nanometer-scale polymer surface coating layer based on styrene-butadiene with varied concentrations, as environmental barrier interphase, was applied to the alkali-resistant glass fibers. Our data indicates that the polymer coating designs the glass fiber with significantly improved both corrosion resistance to alkali and fracture energy absorption capability of its composites. Moreover, an assessment of changes in the fiber surface chemical and nanomechanical properties is provided and a strong correlation between the tensile strength, roughness and Griffith fracture predictions is noted. We examine the fracture mechanisms of composites at different scales based on a mechanical-statistical and an energy-geometry analysis. (C) 2004 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.