ENVIRONMENTAL-EFFECTS ON THE WATER-ABSORPTION AND MECHANICAL-PROPERTIES OF CARBON-FIBER REINFORCED PPS AND PEEK COMPOSITES .2.

Research has been conducted to investigate the water absorption in carbon fiber reinforced poly(ether ether ketone) (PEEK/CF) and poly(phenylene sulfide) composites (PPS/CF). Effect of humidity and temperature on tensile, flexural, and impact strength of these composites were also studied. Results indicated that the water absorbed in PPS/CF and PEEK/CF are 0.059 %wt, 0.130 %wt, 0.138 %wt, and 0.153 %wt at 80-degrees-C, 75 %RH and 85 %RH, respectively. The diffusion process is a classical Fickian diffusion in the temperature range investigated. The activation energies of diffusion are 667 cal/g-mole (for PPS/CF) and 8934 cal/g-mole (for PEEK/CF) at 80-degrees-C and 75 %RH. The retention of mechanical properties of these composites is very good under hot-wet conditions. These composite materials can be served as high performance materials even in the hostile environment. PEEK/CF composites shows excellent mechanical properties retention even at 80-degrees-C, 75 %RH, and 85 %RH.