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Crystallization and chain adsorption of poly(etheretherketone) in discontinuous pitch‐derived carbon fiber composites
Author(s) -
Jonas Alain,
Legras Roger
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
polymer composites
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.577
H-Index - 82
eISSN - 1548-0569
pISSN - 0272-8397
DOI - 10.1002/pc.750140607
Subject(s) - materials science , composite material , peek , nucleation , crystallization , differential scanning calorimetry , scanning electron microscope , fiber , composite number , polymer , mesophase , glass transition , chemical engineering , liquid crystal , chemistry , organic chemistry , engineering , physics , optoelectronics , thermodynamics
The crystallization kinetics of poly(etherether ketone) (PEEK) in chopped mesophase pitch‐derived carbon fiber/PEEK composites have been studied. Various processing techniques are used in order to obtain controlled fiber length in the composites. Scanning electron microscopy performed on properly etched long fiber composite samples reveals that the nucleating sites density is low at the carbon fiber surface: transcrystalline layers are rarely observed. This is confirmed by differential scanning calorimetry. However, samples processed by mixing carbon fibers and molten polymer in a high temperature mixer have a widely different behavior: the nucleation density and the crystallization rate increase, the glass transition of these samples is displaced towards higher temperatures, and the solubility is dramatically lowered. We ascribe these phenomena to the adsorption of the polymer chains on carbon particles created by attrition during the mixting.