Surface modification of glass epoxy resin using the photocatalytic reaction in TiO2 dispersed solution

For the surface modification of polymer, wet-chemical pretreatments using a strong acid such as chromic, sulfuric and potassium-permanganate acid have been performed. However, these methods tend to have inherent problems of uniformity, reproducibility for plating products as well as, the environmental pollution caused by using a strong acid solution. Therefore, to replace wet-chemical pretreatment process, we investigated the surface modification of glass epoxy resin using the photocatalytic reaction in TiO2 dispersed solution. Adhesion strength was improved more than twice when in 0.01 g/L TiO2 dispersed solution than when only UV light irradiated in the absence of TiO2, and XPS results revealed that the oxidized species were more activated by photocatalytic reaction. The surface modification using the photocatalytic reaction did not almost change the surface morphology. From these results, a possibility for the surface modification of glass epoxy resin using the photocatalytic reaction was confirmed.