Surface modification and characterization of basalt fibers as potential reinforcement of concretes Articles uri icon

publication date

  • January 2018

start page

  • 1248

end page

  • 1256

volume

  • 427, Part A

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 0169-4332

Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)

  • 1873-5584

abstract

  • Basalt fibers were surface treated with silane coupling agents as a method to enhance the adhesion and durability of fiber-matrix interfaces in concrete based composite materials. In particular, this work has been focused on the study of basalt fibers chemical coatings with aminosilanes and their subsequent characterization. Surface treatments were carried out after removing the original sizing applied by manufacturer and pretreating them with an activation process of surface silanol regeneration. Different samples were considered to make convenient comparisons: as received fibers (commercial), calcinated fibers (without commercial sizing), activated samples (calcinated fibers subjected to an acid process for hydroxyl regeneration), and silanized fibers with gamma-aminopropiltriethoxysilane, gamma-aminopropilmethyldiethoxysilane and a mixture of 50% by weight of both silanes. A deep characterization was carried out in terms of structure using X-ray diffraction, XRD, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, FTIR, thermal properties by thermogravimetric analysis, TGA, coupled with single differential thermal analysis, SDTA, and morphology by scanning electron microscopy, SEM, and atomic force microscopy, AFM. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

subjects

  • Materials science and engineering

keywords

  • basalt fibers; surface treatments; silane coupling agents