Study on mechanical properties of PBT matrix composites reinforced with surface-modified recycled glass fiber for propellant liner applications

In order to investigate the effect of recycled glass fiber (RGF) from decommissioned wind turbine blades on the mechanical properties of polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) matrix materials, this paper presents the surface modification of RGF with the cationic surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and the silane coupling agent γ-ammino-propyltriethoxysilane (KH550) as the modifying agents. In this experiment, the modified RGF/PBT composites were prepared by injection moulding method. The chemical structure of modified RGF was investigated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The mechanical properties of RGF/PBT composites were investigated by tensile test, impact test and bending test. The results showed that the experiment successfully introduced CTAB and KH550 to the surface of RGF, and prepared surface-modified RGF, which improved the interfacial bonding strength between RGF and PBT matrix, resulting in the improvement of the mechanical properties of the modified RGF/PBT composites, and the RGF composites obtained by the KH550 modification had better properties.