An assessment of interfacial chemistry and character of fiber/polymer micro-composites

Abstract

The interfacial chemistry and character of hygrothermally treated E-glass/epoxy microcomposite have been investigated by FTIR-Imaging and TMDSC techniques. The physical interactions occurring between absorbed water molecules and the network of a tetrafunctional epoxy resin were studied by FTIR Imaging. This is used to study the mechanistic details of epoxy curing on the molecular level. Absorbance peaks of OH stretching bands were focused to study the effects of hygrothermal exposure at the interphase of micro-composite by FTIR Imaging. Temperature Modulated Differential scanning calorimetry (TMDSC) is for studying the glass transformation behavior of glasses and for measuring the glass transition temperature Tg. SEM study help in revealing the phase contrast which might have been developed by the generation of differential straining at different zones of the resin matrix.