Study On The Preparation And Characterization Of Uhmwpe/Epoxy Resin Composite Fiber

Ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) fiber is a kind of high performance fibers, which has very high molecular weight, extended chain crystal, high orientation and high crystallization. It has highest specific strength among all kind of fibers. In addition, it also possesses low density, good UV and erosion resistance, outstanding impact and cut resistance. UHMWPE has been widely used in many fields. However, it has also some weaknesses, such as poor rheology flow and results into low produce efficiency and high cost, poor thermal resistance and easy to creep, which limit its further applications in some special fields. It is therefore important to improve these weaknesses of UHMWPE fiber mentioned above.In order to overcome the shortcomings mentioned above, epoxy resin is added into UHMWPE matrix. In this paper, Structure and properties of UHMWPE/epoxy resin composite fiber were researched. And find that the epoxy resin can work as lubricant, nuclear agent and cross-linking agent in the matrix of UHMWPE fiber to improve these weaknesses mentioned above. The conclusions are as following.1) When the content of epoxy resin is lower than 3wt%, the viscosity and the activation energy of UHMWPE/epoxy resin gel are all lower than that of pure UHMWPE gel.2) The addition of epoxy resin with cross-linking agent or not can improve the UHMWPE fiber processing stability.3) DSC results show that the melting temperature of UHMWPE /epoxy resin composite fiber can be increased from 145℃ to 147℃ when cross-linking agent was used.4) X-ray diffraction results show that the crystallite size and the interlayer distance will decrease when the increases of the content of epoxy resin.5) POM results show that epoxy resin can work as nuclear agent in the matrix of UHMWPE fiber to improve its crystallization behavior.6) Structure and morphology of UHMWPE/epoxy extracted composite fibers by SEM demonstrate that the microfibril structure of the composite fiber becomes more clear with the addition of epoxy resin, maybe because epoxy resin works as nuclear agent.7) The results derived from mechanical tests on UHMWPE/epoxy resin composite fibers indicate that the addition of Epoxy resin into UHMWPE matrix can increase fiber tension strength and modulus by 61.05%fP 90.16% respectively. However, when the content reaches above 10wt%, the mechanical property will decrease heavily than UHMWPE/ 5wt% Epoxy composite fiber because of the aggregation of epoxy resin.8) The results derived from DSC and creep tests on UHMWPE/epoxy resin composite fibers indicate that the thermal and creep resistance of PE fiber can be improved by the addition of Epoxy resin.