Gliding arc discharge — Application for adhesion improvement of fibre reinforced polyester composites

A gliding arc enables selective chemical process with high productivity due to its high degree of non-equilibrium and high energy density simultaneously, and thus can be preferably used for a variety of industrial applications such as gas cleaning, pollution control, fuel conversion, hydrogen production, and surface treatment. However, the application for adhesion improvement of structural materials has been rarely reported. In the present work, glass fibre reinforced polyester plates were treated using atmospheric pressure gliding arcs with high speed air flow for adhesion improvement with vinylester resin. It is found that the treatment increased the density of oxygen-containing polar functional groups at the composite surfaces, the polar component of the surface energy, and adhesive strength with a vinylester resin. The treatment effect highly depended on the temperatures of the electrodes and the discharge.