Improvement of surface wetting properties of poly(p-phenylene benzoxazole) by incorporation of ionic groups

Modified poly(p-phenylene benzoxazole), SPBO, containing ionic sulfonate groups was synthesized by polycondensation of the corresponding monomers in polyphosphoric acid. SPBO fiber was spun via a dry-jet wet-spinning technique. The wetting property of poly(p-phenylene benzoxazole) (PBO) fiber and SPBO fiber were measured by contact angle analysis, and the interfacial shear strength (IFSS) between fibers and epoxy was determined by microbond pull-out testing. The contact angles of water and ethanol on SPBO fiber surface get smaller, and the wetting process becomes faster. The surface free energy of SPBO fiber increases to 38.9 mJ m−2, which is 9.6% higher than that of PBO fiber. Furthermore the ionic introducing leads to a 23% increase in IFSS from 8.2 MPa for PBO/epoxy to 10.1 MPa for SPBO/epoxy. It could be expected that the failure mode may change from fiber/matrix interface adhesive failure to partly cohesive failure mode.