The amine:epoxide ratio at the interface of a glass fibre/epoxy matrix system and its influence on the interfacial shear strength

Petersen, H. N. and Minty, R. F. and Thomason, J. L. and Yang, L. and Kusano, Y. and Brønsted, P. and Almdal, K. (2018) The amine:epoxide ratio at the interface of a glass fibre/epoxy matrix system and its influence on the interfacial shear strength. Composite Interfaces. pp. 1-13. ISSN 0927-6440 (https://doi.org/10.1080/09276440.2018.1511107)

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Abstract

The interfacial shear strength (IFSS) is commonly used for evaluating the adhesion at the interface between fibre and matrix. A glass fibre/epoxy matrix system was investigated. The surface coatings applied to glass fibres may result in a discrepancy in the amine:epoxide group ratio between the interface and the bulk matrix, consequently moving the ratio away from the optimum stoichiometric ratio most often used. The amine:epoxide group ratio in the matrix was varied to obtain the optimum ratio at the interface. The study found that the amine:epoxide ratio influenced the IFSS with an optimum just below the stoichiometric ratio. The microbond test was conducted in a thermal mechanical analyser (TMA) to determine the IFSS thus revealing an inverse dependency on the testing temperature: an increased testing temperature yields a decrease of IFSS. IFSS determined at temperatures below the glass transition temperature displays a decreasing trend at high amine:epoxide ratio whereas IFSS measured at testing temperatures above the glass transition temperature steadily increases as the amine:epoxide ratio increases. The microbond test was conducted using both a tensile tester and a TMA setup. The two microbond test setups yielded results with same behaviour of the IFSS as a function of the amine:epoxide ratio.