Improvement of carbon fiber surface properties using electron beam irradiation

Abstract

Carbon fiber-reinforced advance composites has been used for structural applications, mainly due to their mechanical properties. The main factor for a good mechanical performance of carbon fiber-reinforced composite is the interfacial interaction between the components that are carbon fiber and polymeric matrix. The aim of this work was to improve the surface properties of the carbon fiber using ionizing radiation from an electron beam in order to obtain improvement of the adhesion properties in the resulted composite. EB radiation was applied on the carbon fiber itself before preparing test specimens for mechanical tests. Experimental results have shown that EB irradiation improved the tensile strength of carbon fibers samples. The maximum value in tensile strength was reached at about 250 kGy. After breakage, the morphology aspect of the tensile specimens prepared with irradiated and non-irradiated carbon fibers were evaluated. SEM micrographs have shown modifications on the carbon fiber surface.