Application of low temperature plasma treatment for thermoplastic composites

Low-temperature (“cold”) plasma treatment at atmospheric pressure represents an important technology on how to influence surface properties of thermoplastics in an environmentally friendly and more cost effective way, and also a significant enhancement of adhesion to other types of materials. The key area in composites is the interphase between reinforcement/matrix, where the excellent adhesion of the reinforcement to the matrix for an effective transmission of stress is necessary. Common industrial chemical means such as maleic anhydride (MAH) or silane coupling agents exhibit considerably lower values of adhesion in comparison to plasma technology. After the application of plasma treatment to nonpolar polyethylene (PE) powder to create an interphase in composite glass fiber/PE matrix (PE+GF) the significant increase of tensile strength of 73 % in comparison to unreinforced PE matrix was achieved.