Toughening efficiency and mechanism of carbon fibre epoxy matrix composites by PEK-C

摘要

Polyaryletherketone with Cardo (PEK-C) was used as matrix additive, film and particle interleaves to improve the fracture toughness of carbon fibre epoxy matrix composites. The toughening efficiency and mechanism of the three methods were studied. The PEK-C film interlayer was more efficient and stable in the interlaminar toughening. The flexural strength was not compromised with the incorporation of PEK-C due to the limited addition. The enhanced interlaminar toughening was mainly attributed to the two-phase structure of micrometer scale formed by PEK-C "peel" and the rounded epoxy matrix wrapped by PEK-C. The nanoscale sea-island substructure in the rounded epoxy matrix was observed by atomic force microscopy (AFM), which might be also correlated with the toughness improvement.