Surface modification of diamond and its effect on the mechanical properties of diamond/epoxy composites

This work contributes to the extant literature by providing experimental results showing an improvement in the interfacial adhesion between diamond and epoxy resin by modifying the surface properties of diamond using KH550 silane coupling agent in (i) aqueous alcohol solvent (KH550:H O:C OH=1:1:8) and (ii) toluene solvent (KH550:C =1:9), and the weight ratio of diamond to the above-mixed solution was 1:4. This in turn has been demonstrated to provide improved mechanical properties of the corresponding diamond/resin composite material synthesized from this study. The results obtained from this study were analyzed by using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectra, field emission scanning electron microscopy. and scanning electron microscopy. Besides these examinations, bend strength and hardness tests were also conducted, which lend further credence to this study. Finally, toluene solvent was observed to provide better adhesion at the interface of diamond and epoxy resin, and consequently, this resulted in improved bend strength of the corresponding diamond/resin composite by 14.3%.