(185v) Interfacial Phenomena in Short Carbon Fiber Prepreg Manufacturing

Coating small particles is an important process in the manufacturing of a variety of complex materials, pharmaceuticals, and consumer goods. While uniform particles are easily coated by a variety of industrial scale methods, high aspect ratio particles present a unique challenge in producing uniform, conformally coated surfaces. Coated carbon fibers for the production of high performance prepreg material is one case where coating application is particularly challenging. In this work we illustrate the importance of surface wetting/chemistry and processing technique on the quality of performance thermoplastic coatings on the carbon fiber surface. We show that by tuning surface chemistry using a novel high-throughput process both bare fiber interfacial shear strength and coatability can be drastically improved. Furthermore, we show that the choice of processing technique is not trivial and that uniformity of the resulting coating is a complex function of interfacial phenomena occurring at the fiber surface as well as on the macroscale within the coating process. With this work we outline the important process and material parameters required to achieve a variety of novel materials for a range of applications.