Surface Pretreatment and Fabrication Technology of Braided Carbon Fiber Rope Aluminum Matrix Composite

Carbon fiber is mainly distributed in the shape of short fibers and continuous fiber bundles as the reinforcing phase in metal matrix composites, and it is seldom studied as braided rope shaped to reinforce the matrix. For this paper, the pretreatment and the surface metallization of the carbon fiber braided rope were studied. Besides, the casting experiments of aluminum-based carbon fiber braided rope composites were performed without external pressure. XPS analysis shows that the surface of the carbon fiber braided rope treated with ultrasonic degumming contains many hydrophilic oxygen-containing functional groups C-OH, C=O, COOH, etc., which can effectively improve the wettability between the carbon fiber braided rope and the aluminum matrix. SEM, EDS, and XRD were used to analyze the micromorphology and structure of the copper plating on the surface of carbon fiber braided ropes obtained from different pH plating solutions. When pH is 12, a continuous, uniform, and dense layer was formed on the surface of carbon fiber braided ropes. In addition, copper coating can effectively inhibit the formation of Al4C3 brittle phase. Finally, the mechanical properties results indicated that the tensile strength of the carbon fiber bundle and carbon fiber rope reinforced composite materials were 69 MPa and 83 MPa, respectively, indicating that the reinforcing effect of the carbon fiber rope is better than that of the carbon fiber bundle.