Direct measurement of molten poly(ethylene terephthalate) contact angles on single aminopropylsilane coated glass fibers

Abstract

The kinetics of spreading of molten poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) on aminopropylsilane (APS) treated glass fiber surfaces has been studied. The modified Wilhelmy wetting method was used for contact angle determination with small diameter fibers (10-100 μm) used as vertical wetting probes. It is shown that the small meniscus dimensions accelerates wetting, and viscous relaxation effects can be kept to a minimum, so that purely surface effects can be studied in terms of the equilibrium contact angle at elevated temperatures. Experiments were performed using single fibers coated with a 'reactive' coupling agent (APS) in this laboratory. Although complete spreading of PET at 270°C was not initially observed, zero contact angle was eventually obtained due to interfacial chemical reaction between APS and PET. The suggestion that complete spreading is driven by the interfacial reaction was supported by a study of glass fibers coated with a non-reactive silane. In that case, a large initial contact angle was observed but zero contact angle was never obtained. The equilibration rate to = 0° was much faster on bare glass than APS coated glass for PET at 270°C because complete spreading is thermodynamically favorable on bare glass. Data for commercial silane treated 10 μm fibers in terms of the wetting rate in molten PET at 270°C were comparable to that for the APS coated fibers.

Keywords:

• Fiber
• wetting
• spreading
• polymcr
• silane
• Wilhelmy surface tension