Study On Properties Of Poly (Ether Ether Ketone) And Its Comosite Toughened By Silicon

Poly (ether ether ketone) (PEEK) has excellent rigidity, radiation resistance, fatigue resistance, creep resistance, abrasion resistance, fire-retardant features, etc. Therefore, it has been successfully applied in the aviation, aerospace, nuclear energy, information, communication, electronic telecommunications, petrochemical, machinery manufacturing, transportation and other high-tech fields, followed by the replacement of traditional products. In order to further enlarge the field of its application, great efforts have been devoted to the modification of PEEK by filling, compound and blending.In paper we used poly(ether ether ketone) and silicone as the matrix and the toughening agent, respectively. The new material obtained by blending of the above two polymer is expected to apply in the harsh environment.In paper we prepared a series of PEEK/Silicone and PEEK/CF/Silicone blends by melt extrusion. The influence of the particle size of PEEK and the content of silicone on the properties of the blends was investigated in detail. For PEEK, the addition of silicone could effectively improve the impact strength of the blends. The better the toughening effect was, the closer the particle size of PEEK and silicone was. Moreover, the toughening effect was the best, when the content of silicone was 15%. However, for PEEK/CF composites, the addition of silicone could not improve the impact strength of the blends. The phenomena were explained by the discussion of the toughening mechanism. Furthermore, the addition of silicone also improved the processability of PEEK and its composites in company with the better thermal stability.In a word, the addition of organic silicone certainly can improve the notched impact strength of poly(ether ether ketone), and the modified method is simple and feasible as well as the cost is the lower, so the material probably is applied in the harsh environment in future.