Effects of Ar⁺ ion beam irradiation on the adhesion forces between carbon fibers and thermosetting resins

In this work, an Ar⁺ ion beam was irradiated on carbon fiber surfaces to improve the interfacial shear strength (IFSS) of the resulting composites using an ion assisted reaction (IAR) method. A single fiber pull-out test was executed to investigate the basic characteristics of the single carbon fiber/matrix interface. Based on Greszczuk's geometrical model, the debonding force for pull-out of the fiber from the resins was discussed with the applied ion beam energy. As a result, it was known that an ion beam treatment produced the functional groups on fiber surface and etching lines along the fiber axis direction, resulting in increasing the adhesion forces between fibers and matrix, which caused the improvement of the IFSS in a composite system. And, it was also found that the maximum IFSS was shown at 0.8 keV ion beam energy in this system.