P. Masse et al., ADHESION IMPROVEMENT OF HIGH-MODULUS POLYETHYLENE FIBERS BY SURFACE PLASMA TREATMENT - EVALUATION BY PULL-OUT TESTING, Polymer composites, 15(3), 1994, pp. 247-251
The effect of plasma treatment duration on adhesion promotion of high
modulus polyethylene fiber to a polyester resin matrix has been studie
d. The adhesion level was evaluated using pull-out tests. The relevant
parameters are the average interface shear strength and the critical
embedded length. Particular attention was paid to the sample preparati
on and testing procedure to minimize data scatter inherent to this met
hod due in part to structural and surface defects of the fiber. The re
sults demonstrate that adhesion is enhanced for plasma treatment times
as short as 2 s, mostly because of chemical bonding. Interfacial shea
r resistance gradually increases for the longer times considered, up t
o 10 min. In the latter case, improvement may be due to fiber surface
etching and roughening, rather than chemical bonding.