Polyethylene adhesion: Pretreatment with potassium permanganate

摘要

AbstractTwo major events occur in the modification of polyethylene (PE) surfaces by treatment with acidic KMnO4solutions: The polymer surface is coated with a porous MnO2layer and corroded, by oxidation. In both cases the resulting surfaces may be bonded with epoxy; the average peeling force for LDPE/epoxy/LDPE adhesive joints thus obtained may reach>1.6 kN m−1and is limited by adherend cohesive failure. Modified LDPE surfaces and disassembled joints were examined by transmission and ATR‐IR spectrophotometry, to show that corroded, nonwettable LDPE contains appreciable amounts of polar groups, reactive towards epoxy amine compone