Abstract
This review describes the present techniques and problems on the surface treatment of filler particles with silane coupling agent for a particulate filled composite especially composed of epoxy resins and silica particles. Recently, it has been clarified that a structure of the treated silane coupling agents on the silica surface is a monolayer or a multilayer, although that is a network on the surface of glass fiber. A mechanical strength of the composites is improved by the surface treatment whereas their fracture toughness is not always improved. The novel method to directly evaluate an interfacial strength between a particle and a matrix was proposed recently.
