Effect of polypyrrole modified carbon fiber on interfacial property of composite PPy-carbon fiber/epoxy

In order to improve the interfacial property of carbon fiber composites, the carbon fiber was pretreated by plasma technique and then coated with polypyrrole (PPy) by chemical oxidation polymerization of pyrrole. The surface modified carbon fiber and composite were characterized by SEM, AFM, XPS, FT-IR and IFSS. Results show that the interfacial shear strength of the modified single fiber increased by 259.3%, which may be ascribed to that the plasma pretreatment can increase the amount of polar groups on the surface of the carbon fiber, and facilitate the formation of hydrogen bonds between the carbon fiber and PPy, thus enhancing the interfacial property of the composite PPy-carbon fiber/ epoxy.