Relationship Between Interfacial Water Layer Adhesion Loss of Silicon/Glass Fiber–Epoxy Systems: A Quantitative Study

Water at the polymer/substrate interface is often the major cause of adhesion loss in coatings, adhesives, and fiber-reinforced polymer composites. This study critically assesses the relationship between the interfacial water layer and the adhesion loss in epoxy/siliceous substrate systems. Both untreated and silane-treated Si substrates and untreated and silane-treated E-glass fibers were used. Thickness of the interfacial water layer was measured on epoxy/Si systems by Fourier transform infrared–multiple total internal reflection (FTIR-MTIR) spectroscopy. Adhesion loss of epoxy/Si systems and epoxy/E-glass fiber composites was measured by peel adhesion and short-beam shear tests, respectively. Little water accumulation at the epoxy/Si substrate interface was observed for silane-treated Si substrates, but about 10 monolayers of water accumulated at the interface between the epoxy and the untreated Si substrate following 100 h of exposure at 24 °C. More than 70% of the initial epoxy/untreated Si system peel strength was lost within 75 h of exposure, compared with 20% loss after 600 h for the silane-treated Si samples. Shear strength loss in composites made with untreated E-glass fiber was nearly twice that of composites fabricated with silane-treated fiber after 6 months of immersion in 60 °C water. Further, the silane-treated composites remained transparent, but the untreated fiber composites became opaque after water exposure. Evidence from FTIR-MTIR spectroscopy, adhesion loss, and visual observation strongly indicated that a water layer at the polymer/substrate interface is mostly responsible for the adhesion loss of epoxy/untreated siliceous substrate systems and epoxy/untreated glass fiber composites and that FTIR-MTIR is a viable technique to reliably and conveniently assess the adhesion loss attributable to water sorption at the interface.