STUDY OF CARBON-FIBER SURFACE TREATMENTS BY DYNAMIC-MECHANICAL ANALYSIS

Dynamic mechanical and thermal analysis (DMTA) has been used to study the effects of surface treatment of carbon fibres on the viscoelastic properties of composites containing them. The fibres were treated by d ip-coating, electro-polymerization, and plasma polymerization, and the behaviour of these fibres is compared with that of fibres treated by ordinary commercial oxidation and sizing procedures. Analysis of the e xperimental results is made both in terms of conventional approaches t o viscoelastic behaviour and of the power-law analysis of the glass tr ansition in an attempt to obtain suitable parameters for the evaluatio n of the effects of surface treatment.