The application of carbon-fiber-reinforced thermoplastic (CFRTP)/metal hybrid structures is a vital step for realizing the lightweight design concepts in aerospace. However, the CFRTP/metal hybrid structures are usually not reliable enough in practical applications due to the high differences in chemical and physical properties between these two materials. The current work provides a bottom-up strategy of introducing heteroatoms into CFRTP/metal interfaces to reconstruct the interfacial chemical structures and thus manufacture high-reliability hybrid structures. Based on the principle of utmost using reaction sites at metal surfaces, the heteroatoms of oxygen and hydrogen are specially designed and introduced to the CFRTP/A6061-T6 (6061) interfaces by simple and green plasma polymerization. The introduced oxygen and hydrogen heteroatoms react with the aluminum and oxygen of the oxidation film at 6061 surfaces to produce great interfacial Al-O covalencies and hydrogen bonds. The reconstructing interfacial chemical structures strengthen the joint strength of CFRTP/6061 hybrid structures from 8.82 to 23.97 MPa. Our heteroatom introduction strategy is expected to get a fresh insight into the interfacial design concept and has several important implications for the future application of high-reliability CFRTP/metal hybrid structures.
Keywords: CFRTP/metal hybrid structures; DFT calculations; bonding mechanism; compatibility; heteroatom introduction; joint reliability.