We examine the effect of fiber surface oxyfluorination on the interfacial bonding between acrylic coated optical fiber and a cementitious matrix and polyester resin respectively. In this investigation, the optical fiber is surface oxyfluorinated through a gas reaction process at room temperature in which elemental oxygen and fluorine are introduced into the acrylic molecular chain to replace the hydrogen atoms partially. After surface fluorination, the wettability of the optical fiber improves. The surface of the unmodified and the surface oxyfluorinated optical fiber were observed by scanning electron microscopy. Through an optical fiber embedment pull-out test, it is found that the surface oxyfluorination treatment improves the adhesional shear bond strength between the optical fiber and the cementitious matrix by 22%. It is also found that this surface treatment improves the interfacial bonding between the optical fiber and the polyester resin matrix by 67%. The debonding of the unmodified optical fiber and the polyester matrix exhibits catastrophic failure characteristics, whereas that of the oxyfluorinated optical fiber with the polyester matrix is more gradual and there is still a substantial bond at the interface after the interfacial adhesive bond is broken. The mechanisms for the increase in interfacial bonding between the oxyfluorinated acrylic coated optical fiber and the cementitious and polyester resin matrices are proposed.
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