The applications of flower-shaped ZnO-UHMWPE fibers in photocatalysis and composites

Ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) fiber is considered as one of the high-performance fibers. However, the inert surface of UHMWPE fiber limits its application in many fields. In order to opti-mize the application of UHMWPE fibers in functional and composite fields, this work introduced a special surface structure of the UHMWPE fibers. The designed surface was formed by the flower-shaped ZnO (F-ZnO) crystals, which endowed the UHMWPE fibers with photocatalytic property. Moreover, F-ZnO on the UHMWPE fiber surface enhanced the roughness of the fiber, which improves the interfacial bonding strength of fiber-reinforced composites. The experimental results showed that the surface wettability of the F-ZnO-UHMWPE fibers was improved significantly. Moreover, F-ZnO-UHMWPE fibers were used as immobilized photocatalyst, and the degradation rate of rodamine B reached 53.3 %. F-ZnO-UHMWPE fiber also could be used in fiber-reinforced composites fields. Compared with the pure rigid polyurethane (RPU) and UHMWPE fibers/RPU composites, the tensile strengths of F-ZnO-UHMWPE fibers/RPU composites were improved by 130.3 % and 44.2 % respectively.& COPY; 2023 The Korean Society of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.