New thermoplastic polymer matrices for composite materials

摘要

Although composites with thermosetting matrices, e.g. epoxy or phenolic resins, are widely used in the Aerospace Industry', their brittle nature (due to the high crosslinked network), limits the usefulness of these materials Thermoplastic composites using semicrystaliine aromatic polymers, e.g. Victrex PEEK, exhibit toughness, ductility and good environmental resistance, and have superior performance in terms of properties such as damage tolerance, low energy impact and hot wet compressive strength, to the state-of-the-art thermosets However, thermoplastics have their limitations in that those which are crystalline and of high T_g are difficult to prepreg and are prone to creep at high temperatures, whereas the crosslinks in the thermosets prevent creep and allow the impregnation to take place at room temperature.