A study of the adhesion of drawn polyethylene fibre/polymeric resin systems

The effect of plasma etching and chromic acid treatment on the surface adhesion of ultrahigh modulus polyethylene fibers to an epoxy resin has been studied. The adhesion was determined from pull-out tests, and showed a significant improvement for both plasma and acid treatments. The mechanism of failure, however, appeared to be different in the two cases. Untreated and acid-treated monofilaments showed a fairly smooth surface and failure of the pull-out samples involved sliding along the monofilament/resin interface. Plasma treatment, on the other hand, produced a remarkable structure on the monofilament surface, into which resin penetrated to produce a mechanical keying between monofilament and resin.