Silane Treatments of Glass Fibers

The subject of silane chemistry and its interaction with both glass surface and polymer resins have been studied extensively. Since the silane coupling agent for improving the bond quality has first appeared in the literature (Rochow, 1951), a wide variety of organofunctional silanes has been developed, prominently by Plueddemann and coworkers. An early compilation of this subject for epoxy and polyester matrix composites (Plueddemann et al., 1962, Clark and Plueddemann, 1963 Plueddemann, 1974), and more recent reviews on the use of silane agents and 

Therefore, once the silane coated glass fibers are in contact with uncured resins, the R-groups on the fiber surface react with the functional groups present in the polymer resin, such as methacrylate, amine, epoxy and styrene groups, forming a stable covalent bond with the polymer (Fig. 5.3(d)). It is essential that the R-group 

Trade name Organofunctional group Chemical structure 

The mechanical properties of the blend of silane/size and bulk epoxy matrix (at concentrations representing likely compositions found at the fiber-matrix interface region) also suggest that the interaction of size with epoxy produces an interphase which is completely different to the bulk matrix material (Al-Moussawi et al., 1993). The interphase material tends to have a lower glass transition temperature, Tg, higher modulus and tensile strength and lower fracture toughness than the bulk matrix. Fig. 5.4 (Drown et al., 1991) presents a plot of Tg versus the amount of 

Improvement in flexural strength due to silane treatments in glass liber thermoplastic matrix composites  

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