Enhanced interfacial adhesion of CF/PEEK-titanium hybrid laminates via rare-earth coordination interaction.

Improving the adhesion between metal sheet and resin is an important issue for the development of high-performance fiber metal laminates (FMLs). In this study, a novel rare-earth surface modification is applied for the first time to enhance the interfacial bonding strength of titanium sheets and polyetheretherketone (PEEK). Density functional theory (DFT) calculations show that cerium element could form coordination bonds at the interfaces between metallic titanium and resin. The surface wettability of titanium sheet is boosted, which is beneficial to PEEK infiltration and physical adhesion improvement. Meanwhile, with the existence of coordination bonds at the interface, the interfacial shear strength between titanium and PEEK, and the flexural strength and interlaminar shear strength of CF/PEEK-Ti laminates are enhanced significantly. Therefore, the cerium surface modification method proposed in this study has great potentials for FMLs, which provides a new strategy for generating chemical bond at interfaces between metal and resin. [Display omitted] • Proposed a novel and facile rare-earth surface modification method. • The interface between titanium and PEEK was bonded by rare-earth coordination. • The single lap shear strength of rare-earth modified interface between titanium and PEEK had an increment of 178.0%. • The flexural strength (180.0%), and ILSS (40.0%) of rare-earth modified CF/PEEK-Ti composites were significantly enhanced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]