Study on Improvement of Thermal and Mechanical Properties of PEEK-Modified Epoxy Resins

In the paper, PEEK(poly(ether ether ketone)) was added to the epoxy resins as a modifier to improve thermal and mechanical properties of the cured resins. The heat effects of curing epoxy resin composites with PEEK were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) technology and the morphologies of the fracture surface by scanning electron microscope (SEM). The relationship between the morphologies and mechanical properties were discussed. The results revealed that the thermal and mechanical properties of the modified epoxy resins, such as impact strengths, compress strengths and the flexural strengths achieved improvements to a certain extent, compared with those of neat epoxy resins. As the addition of PEEK is 6 wt%, the impact strength reaches the maximum of 19.1kJ/m², Martin´s temperature achieves 120degC