Adsorption Reactions of Carboxylic Acid Functional Groups on Sodium Aluminoborosilicate Glass Fiber Surfaces

Multicomponent silicate glasses are ubiquitous in modern society as evidenced by their inclusion in applications ranging from building materials and microelectronics to biomedical implants. Of particular interest in this study is the interface between multicomponent silicate glasses and adhesive polymers. These polymeric systems often possess a variety of different organic functional groups. In this study, we selected acetic acid as a probe molecule representative of the carboxylic acid functional group found in many adhesives. We have used Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and NMR to study the interaction of acetic acid with the surface of sodium aluminoborosilicate continuous glass fibers. Methods were developed that enable analyses to be carried out without damaging or altering the pristine as drawn fiber surface. While dosing the surface of fumed silica with acetic acid resulted in the formation of silyl ester groups, analogous dosing of sodium aluminoborosilicate glass fibers resulted in the formation of carboxylate species, principally coordinated to sodium, while silyl ester groups were not observed.