Surface modification of carbon fibers and its effect on the fiber–matrix interaction of UHMWPE based composites

• Both chemical and thermal treatments of UKN 5000 carbon fibers allow one to obtain well-developed surface. • The changes of structure and properties of VMN-4 fibers after both thermal and chemical oxidation are insignificant due to more perfect initial structure of these fibers. • The oxidative treatment of carbon fibers allows one to improve the interfacial interaction in the UHMWPE-based composites. • The oxidative treatment of the fibers allows one to a triple increase of Young’s modulus of the modified fibers reinforced UHMWPE composites. The PAN-based carbon fibers (CF) were subjected to thermal and chemical oxidation under various conditions. The variation in the surface morphology of carbon fibers after surface treatment was analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). It was found that the tensile strength of carbon fibers changed after surface modification. The interaction between the fibers and the matrix OF ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) was characterized by the Young modulus of produced composites. It was shown that the Young modulus of composites reinforced with modified carbon fibers was significantly higher than that of composites reinforced with non-modified fibers.