The Glass Fiber Reinforced Polyurethane Foam Interface Characterization Study

The interfacial characteristics of polyurethane rigid foam reinforced by glass fiber, which treated by different coupling agents, were studied by using many techniques, such as confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM), scanning electronic microscopy(SEM), Fourier iris spectroscopy (FT-IRX atomic force microscopy (AFM), contacting angel measurement, dynamic mechanic analyzer (DMA), X-ray photon spectroscopy (XPS) . By carrying out the study on the morphology, the structure and the influence factors, the interface between glass fiber with polyurethane, and glass fiber with coupling agent were investigated. At the same time, the mechanical properties of GF/PUR system were measured to determine where there were some relationships between the micro structure and macro property. Several valuable results were obtained as following:1. The glass fiber with surface treated could get equally dispersed in the matrix, while the glass fiber without treated existed in the matrix in bundle. The thickness of the coupling agent on the glass fiber was about lum. And the mechanical properties of glass fiber with surface treated were better than those of without The existing of the glass fiber would have influenced on the forming of the regular foamed cell of polyurethane.2. The results of IR spectroscopy showed that -N=C=O and NH2- have reacted to be carbamindo, and the Si-O band formed after coupling agent reacted with glass fiber, which means the steady interface with chemical bonds was formed. The N element content was descent with increasing of the thickness of the glass fiber, and the thickness of N element was between 1500A-3000A.3. The interaction between glass fiber and matrix was best when the product's density was about 0.3 g/cm3, and die interaction parameter calculated attained to 2.50, it was demonstrated that the area of the joints with medium density is more than others. The mechanical properties proved that the compress intensity and impact intensity of PUR/GF with medium density were increased most.4. The coupling agents such as A151, KH560 and KH550 could get effectively coated on the glass fiber, but the TC-2 could not The effect of surface treatment was best when the content of coupling agent was about 1.0%.