Surface modification and characterization of basalt fibers as potential reinforcement of concretes
Basalt fibers were surface treated with silane coupling agents as a method to enhance the adhesion
and durability of fiber-matrix interfaces in concrete based composite materials. In particular, this work
has been focused on the study of basalt fibers chemical coatings with aminosilanes and their subsequent
characterization. Surface treatments were carried out after removing the original sizing applied
by manufacturer and pretreating them with an activation process of surface silanol regeneration.
Different samples were considered to make convenient comparisons: as received fibers (commercial),
calcinated fibers (without commercial sizing), activated samples (calcinated fibers subjected to
an acid process for hydroxyl regeneration), and silanized fibers with -aminopropiltriethoxysilane, -
aminopropilmethyldiethoxysilane and a mixture of 50% by weight of both silanes. A deep characterization
was carried out in terms of structure using X-ray diffraction, XRD, and Fourier transform infrared
spectroscopy, FTIR, thermal properties by thermogravimetric analysis, TGA, coupled with single differential
thermal analysis, SDTA, and morphology by scanning electron microscopy, SEM, and atomic force
microscopy, AFM.