Process of glass fiber/epoxy composites and coating interface adhesion with Ni particle reinforcement

A method of metalized composites is proposed to improve the adhesion strength between the glass fiber/epoxy composites and coating. This method was based on mechanical interlocks principles in composite/coating and traditional plastic matrix chemical plating process. An interlayer containing reinforced particles was added to enhance the coating interface through the reinforced particles' role of bridging. The tensile test method was used to measure the adhesion strength of coating of the metalized glass fiber/epoxy composite specimen. The microscope observations of the cross-section and fracture surface were investigated to analyze the strengthening mechanism of reinforced particles on the coating interface. The influence rules of surface roughness of glass fiber/epoxy composites and reinforced particles mass fraction on the adhesion strength of the coating containing an interlayer were obtained. The results show that the improved metalized method can increase adhesion strength of coating by an average of 161% in comparison to the traditional metalized methods with different surface roughness. Moreover, the adhesion strength of coating rises at first and then falls with the increase of the mass fraction of reinforced particles. The adhesion strength of coating reaches the maximum when the mass fraction of reinforced particles is 50%.