The Polymer Society of Korea

Abstract

Glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) is recognized for its potential as a lightweight structural materials with thermal insulation owing to its low thermal conductivity. Previous researches to improve the thermal insulation and flame retardancy of GFRP involve incorporating hollow glass microspheres (HGM) into the polymer. However, this method results in fiber filtration effect and increased resin viscosity, impeding resin impregnation during vacuum-assisted resin transfer molding and limiting the fabrication of high-quality composites. In this study, a layer-by-layer assembly method was proposed to overcome these limitations by pre-coating the glass fiber (GF) with HGM. To induce the electrostatic deposition, polyethyleneimine was used to impart a positive charge to the GF, facilitating the uniform and controllable coating of negatively charged, surface-modified HGM. The uniform deposition of HGM contributes to enhanced thermal insulation and flame retardancy of the resulting GFRP.