Fiber reinforced polymer composites characterization by differential scanning calorimeter

Abstract

The conventional materials are nowadays not sufficient to cater to the variety of uses and exposure to various environments that may take place while they are put into use. Hence this leads to the development of composites, which nearly suffice the above two conditions. But they are always prone to detoriation and degradation of properties due to their extreme affinity for moisture absorption. Many complex reactions occur at the fibermatrix interface due to moisture absorption, but very little information is available regarding the deviation in physical and chemical behavior at the interface due to this. The present work focuses on the physical changes occurring at the fiber-matrix interface. In our case, the samples were divided into three parts. One was kept as dry sample; the others were hygrothermally aged for 50 hours and 100 hours respectively at 50o C and 95% humidity. Now a comparative study of all the three samples was done near the interface. The DSC technique was carried out to study the physical changes or deviation of the Glass transition temperature of the composite. From the nature of the curve obtained from the DSC measurements, we can infer about how the Glass transition temperature varies with the heat flow, and how it varies for different samples with different hygrothermal treatment. From these data, the changes occurring at the interface can be known.