Tan, Chao, Rudd, Chris, Parsons, Andrew, Sharmin, Nusrat, Zhang, Junxiao, Chen, Wanru, and Ahmed, Ifty (2018) Chitosan as a coupling agent for phosphate glass fibre/polycaprolactone composites. Fibers, 6 (4). 97.

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Abstract

This study shows that chitosan (CS) could be highly useful as a coupling agent in phosphate glass fibre/polycaprolactone (PGF/PCL) composites, as it improved the interfacial shear strength by up to 78%. PGFs of the composition 45P(2)O(5)-5B(2)O(3)-5Na(2)O-24CaO-10MgO-11Fe(2)O(3) were dip-coated with CS (with a degree of deacetylation >80%) dissolved in acetic acid solution (2% v/v). Different CS concentrations (3-9 g L-1) and coating processes were investigated. Tensile and fragmentation tests were conducted to obtain the mechanical properties of the single fibres and interfacial properties of the PGF/PCL composites, respectively. It was observed that post-cleaning, the treated fibres had their tensile strength reduced by around 20%; however, the CS-coated fibres experienced strength increases of up to 1.1-11.5%. TGA and SEM analyses were used to confirm the presence of CS on the fibre surface. FTIR, Raman, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analyses further confirmed the presence of CS and indicated the protonation of CS amine groups. Moreover, the nitrogen spectrum of XPS demonstrated a minimum threshold of CS coating required to provide an improved interface.

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