%0 Journal Article
%T Investigation on the surface free energy of a single flax fiber through adhesion measurement by atomic force microscopy
%A Chad A Ulven
%A Kai Li
%A Shabbir Ahmed
%A Xinnan Wang
%J Journal of Composite Materials
%@ 1530-793X
%D 2018
%R 10.1177/0021998318763994
%X Surface free energy of a fiber is an important parameter for predicting the interfacial bond strength of fiber-matrix adhesion of composite materials. For mechanical characterization of bio-composite materials, the measurement of the surface energy of individual single microfibers is complicated due to their surface roughness, formation of chemical bonds, wicking characteristics, etc. This paper demonstrates a novel method for determining the dispersive component of surface free energy ( ¦Ã d ) of single flax fiber by directly measuring the adhesion force between the probe tip of an atomic force microscope and the fiber surface. Johnson¨CKendal¨CRoberts theory was employed to correlate the adhesion force with the surface energy and tip radius. Finally, the value of ¦Ã d was determined, and its significance with respect to other methods was analyzed
%K Flax fiber
%K surface energy
%K micro-fibril angle
%K atomic force microscopy
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0021998318763994