Surface adhesive properties of continuous PBO fiber after air-plasma-grafting-epoxy treatment

It was found that air dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma contributed to the grafting of epoxy resin onto continuous PBO fiber surface. This air-plasma-grafting-epoxy method yielded a noticeable enhancement in the interfacial adhesion between PBO fiber and thermoplastic matrix resin, with the interlaminar shear strength of the resulting composites increased by 66.7%. DSC and FTIR analyses were then used to study the curing behavior of epoxy coating on PBO fiber surface, deduce the possible grafting reactions and investigate the grafting mechanism. More importantly, TGA measurement showed that the grafting of epoxy onto PBO fiber had almost no effect on the composite heat resistance, and there was more thermoplastic matrix resin adhering to the fiber surface; the latter could also be clearly found in the SEM photos. Thereby, the air-plasma-grafting-epoxy treatment was proved to be an effective method for the improvement of continuous PBO fiber surface adhesive properties.