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1993
Journal Article
Titel
Plasma surface treatment of carbon fibre reinforced polyetheretherketone -PEEK- composites
Abstract
Oxygen and argon plasma treatments on PEEK-composites have been studied using lap shear tests and XPS-spectroscopy. Compared to other surface treatments like corona-discharge and chromic sulphuric acid etching, the plasma treatment show significantly better shear strength exceeding 40 N/qmm. The stability of the plasma treated surfaces to a storage in air prior to the adhesive bonding is remarkable. Even after a storage of 4 weeks a lap shear strength of nearly 30 N/qmm was obtained. XPS has shown that the untreated PEEK-surface is build by well defined PEEK in full accordance with the expected theoretical composition and chemical structure. Surface contaminations were not present. The effect of the plasma treatments on the PEEK-surface is an increased amount of functional groups that can be attributed to different carbon-oxygen environments. This is valid for the oxygen treatment as well as for the argon treatment. Therefore a direct reaction of active oxygen species in the plasma wit h PEEK is probably not the prominent activation mechanism.