Bonding Through Coupling Agents

Abstract

Fiberglass-reinforced plastic composites have been developed to high performance materials since their introduction in 1948. Along with modest improvements in resins and glass fibers, the greatest advance has been in development of “coupling agents” to improve the bonding of resin to glass [1] (Table 1). Since unsaturated polyester resins were the most common organic matrix material, various unsaturated compounds of silicon and other elements were first tested as coupling agents. Only unsaturated silanes and methacrylatochrome complexes (DuPont Volan^®) have reached commercial importance for these resins (Fig. 1).