The effect of plasma treatment on the mechanical behavior of UHMWPE fiber-reinforced thermoplastic HDPE composite

Ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) fibers have been modified by plasma treatment to increase adhesion in high-density polyethylene (HDPE) matrices. Results showed that surface roughness predominates for modified UHMWPE fibers, indicating that the plasma treatment favors the interaction with HDPE. Unmodified HDPE composite samples gave a lower interlaminar shear strength than did the samples that were incorporated with UHMWPE. The addition of unmodified UHMWPE fibers to the neat HDPE significantly increases interlaminar shear strengths of composites, up to 20vol%. The oxygen concentration increased from 16.16 %to 21.99%, and the ratio of oxygen to carbon atoms increased significantly from 0.194 to 0.284 after oxygen plasma treatment for 5minutes with a power of 300W.