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Effect of Irradiation on the Strength Properties of Polyethylene-Matrix Glass-Reinforced Plastics
Summary
Researchers studied how radiation exposure affects the strength of glass fiber-reinforced plastic composites, finding that irradiation initially weakens the material but can form new chemical bonds between the polymer matrix and glass fibers at higher doses in vacuum. This work concerns industrial materials rather than environmental microplastic pollution.
The influence of radiolysis on the strength of glass fiber-reinforced composites was studied. It was found that irradiation of a single-ply microplastics (MPs) reinforced preliminarily by application of polymeric finishes and sizings led to a drop in strength, which was inversely proportional to the dose, at the initial irradiation stage. This effect, which was accompanied by a fall in the magnitude of the elastic modulus, was assumed to be due to the initial failure of the stressed adhesive interlayer between microfibers of a strand, which leads to a decline in the ability of the stress to be transferred to the monofilaments upon loading of microplastics. It was shown that as the radiation dose in air increased, the breaking strength of MPs passed through a maximum at 1000 kGy, whereas that of the PE matrix alone noticeably decreased. These results suggest the formation of chemical bonds between the polymer matrix and the surface of the glass fiber. It was found that the strength of MPs sharply increased upon irradiation in vacuum at doses as low as 10–50 kGy.