Design of a bi-layer coating configuration on ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) fibre surface to derive synergistic response on interfacial bond strength

In this study, we demonstrate a design of a stable bi-layer coating configuration on UHMWPE fibres surface. UHMWPE fibres show abundant promise as load bearing reinforcement in fibre-based composites; however, its inert chemical nature has been a consistent hurdle for developing high performance composites. An efficient and environmentally friendly two-step coating technique has been performed on UHMWPE fibre surface; viz. Physisorption of polydopamine (PDA) followed by the construction of Polyamide 6,6 coating over PDA layer. The coated fibres revealed improved tensile strength in comparison to the pure UHMWPE fibres. Transverse fibre bundle tension (TFBT) test was used to assess the interfacial bonding strength of the coated fibre with an epoxy matrix. The bi-layer coated fibre/epoxy demonstrated an improvement of similar to 40% in bonding strength compared to the pure UHMWPE/epoxy system. This bi-layer coated UHMWPE fibres could be of immense potential for several applications, including biomedical engineering.