Epoxy adhesives surface wetting

From Tables 7.7 and 7.8, it can be forecast that epoxy adhesives will wet clean aluminum or copper surfaces. However, epoxy resin will not wet a substrate having a critical surface tension significantly less than 47 dynes/cm. Epoxies will not, for example, wet either a metal surface contaminated with silicone oil or a clean polyethylene substrate. 

Most common adhesive liquids readily wet clean metal surfaces, ceramic surfaces, and many high-energy polymeric surfaces. However, epoxy adhesives do not wet low-energy surfaces such as polyethylene and fluorocarbons. The fact that good wetting requires the adhesive to have a lower surface tension than the substrate explains why organic adhesives, such as epoxies, have excellent adhesion to metals, but offer weak adhesion on many untreated polymeric substrates, such as polyethylene, polypropylene, and the fluorocarbons. 

FIGURE 3.4 Contact angle of an uncured epoxy adhesive on four substrates of varying, critical surface tension. Note that as the critical surface tension of the substrates decreases, the contact angle increases, indicating less wetting of the surface by the epoxy adhesive.4... 

The viscosity increase in a epoxy resin-curing agent system could result in poor wetting of the substrate surface, resulting in suboptimal adhesion. Several reaction mechanisms can also occur to an epoxy adhesive once it is mixed and applied to a substrate but before the substrates are mated. These mechanisms can result in a weak boundary layer, which will prevent optimal wetting and reduce the strength of the adhesive. 

Since slower-curing epoxy adhesives systems flow over and wet high-energy surfaces very well, there is little chance for air to become trapped at the interface. As a result, mechanical abrasion is often recommended as a substrate surface treatment prior to application of the epoxy adhesive. The added surface area and the mechanical bonding provided by the additional peaks and valleys on the surface will enhance adhesive strength. If the adhesive does not wet the substrate surface well, such as in the case of epoxy resin on polyethylene, mechanical abrasion is not recommended since it will only encourage the probability of gas voids being trapped at the interface. 

DEAPA was used in several early commercial epoxy adhesive formulations. Schonhom and Sharpe9 have shown that this amine is surprisingly effective in reducing the surface tension of epoxy resins (Table 5.4). It is speculated that the utility of DEAPA adhesives is in part due to better wetting than other epoxy formulations. 

The usual approach to good bonding practice is to prepare the aluminum surface as thoroughly as possible, then wet it with the adhesive as soon afterward as practical. In any event, aluminum parts should ordinarily be bonded within 48 h after surface preparation. However, in certain applications this may not be practical, and primers are used to protect the surface between the time of treatment and the time of bonding. Primers are also applied as a low-viscosity solution which wets a metal surface more effectively than more viscous, higher-solids-content adhesives. Corrosion-resistant epoxy primers are often used to protect the etched surface during assembly operations. Primers for epoxy adhesive systems are described in Chap. 10. 

Flexibilized epoxy adhesives have moderate strength on flame and corona treated polyolefin substrates. Elevated cure temperature results in better adhesion because of more efficient wetting of the substrate surface. Table 16.13 shows a starting formulation for an epoxy adhesive that develops high peel strength to many difficult-to-bond substrates such as polyethylene, thermoplastic rubber, and polyester film. 

The so called "flexiblized" epoxy is most commonly used for filling such joints. Sponge rod is not used in food plants due to possible subsurface contamination and bacterial growth. Several years ago, a series of tests were made and it was found that silicones are better for strong oxidizing chemical resistance, such as nitric acid. Unfortunately they lose adhesion in wet or submerged exposures. They require very dry clean surfaces and a silicone primer. A test installation is recommended before you use silicone in a project. 

These results indicate that a layer of undercured polymer can be formed when epoxy adhesives are used on high-energy substrates. When cementing surfaces with low surface energy, no such layer was observed, but in this case the achievement of high adhesion strength is hindered by poor substrate wetting by the adhesive. 

Most organic adhesives readily wet metal adherends. On the other hand, many solid organic substrates have surface tensions lower than those of common adhesives. The criteria for good wetting requires the adhesives to have a lower surface tension than the substrate, which explains, in part, why organic adhesives such as epoxies have excellent adhesion to metals but... 

Nylons are synthetic thermoplastic polyamides of relatively high molecular weight that have been used as the basis for several types of adhesive systems. They are used as solution adhesives, as hot-melt adhesives, and as components of other adhesive-alloy types (nylon-epoxy and phenolic-nylon). The high-molecular-weight products are generally referred to as modified nylons. Low- and intermediate-molecular-weight materials are also available. The latter two are more commonly used in hot-melt formulations and the modified nylons are often blended with small amounts of a phenolic resin to improve surface wetting (hence nylon-phenolic). 

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