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Volume 15, Issue 6, 2006
INFLUENCES OF FIBRE SURFACE TREATMENT AND SOLVENT SPECIES ON RTMED SILICA FIBRE/PHENOLICS COMPOSITES
Baichen Wang1,*, Yudong Huang2, Ping Chen1, Yu Gao1
1Department of Material Engineering, Shenyang Institute of Aeronautical Engineering, Shenyang 110034, People’s Republic of China
2 Department of Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, People’s Republic of China
* Corresponding author. Tel: +86-24-89724200, Fax: +86-24-86141365
E-mail address: wangbc2005@sohu.com
Received 27 August 2006; accepted 6 December 2006
ABSTRACT
In this study the effects of solvent species and silane coupling agent on the resin transfer moulded (RTMed) silica fibre/phenolics composites were investigated. Diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform (DRIFT) spectroscopy and wettability measurement were carried out. The interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) measurements and morphological observations of the silica fibre/phenolics composites were also performed. The interactions occurring between silica fibre and the components of phenolics solution affect the dynamic adsorption behaviour of phenolic resin onto fibre reinforcement. The competitive adsorption of solvent onto silica fibre suppresses that of phenolic resin. Fibre surface silanization with ?-aminopropyl-triethoxysilane (?-APS) leads to the improvement of mechanical interfacial properties of silica fibre/phenolics composites on one hand and decreases inhomogeneities of resin distribution and mechanical interfacial properties of the RTM product on the other. For the first time it has shown that the RTM process of silica fibre/phenolics composites is highly solvent dependent. Phenolics form distribution gradient in RTM mould with respect to isomeric composition under the effect of solvent, which result, to varying extent, in the inhomogeneity of void content and thus ILSS of the resulting product. Our work gives an insight into the role of organic solvent in RTM processing and this will help in choosing the best possible solvent for the solution impregnation system.
KEYWORDS: Phenolic resin, Silica fibre, Solvent, Surface silanization, Resin transfer moulding (RTM)
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