Characterization and Application to Fiber Reinforced Composite of Catechol/polyethyleneimine Modified Polyester Fabrics by Mussel-inspiration

In order to nondestructively prepare polyamine modified polyethylene glycol terephthalate (PET) fabric, codeposition of catechol and polyethyleneimine onto PET fiber was conducted by the means of mussel-inspired method. The surface morphology, composition of woven fabric were investigated by FESEM and ATR-FTIR, XPS, respectively, whose results demonstrated successful modification has taken place on PET fiber surface. The TG-DSC data proved that the melting temperature and decomposition temperature increased from 253.78 °C and 394.08 °C to 255.01 C and 398.21 °C, respectively. The surface polarity was characterized through the dynamic contact angle. The results indicated that the fabric displayed optimal surface properties at the PEI-CA mass ratio of 1:1. The modified PET fabric was utilized to prepare the fiber reinforced epoxy composite and its mechanical performances including tensile, flexural and short beam shear strength were evaluated. The obtained results indicated that the interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) has been significantly improved by 57.02 %. The novel way to modify fabrics has great potential in recycling waste fabric for preparing fiber reinforced composite.