Preparation and Characterization of Glass-Fiber-Reinforced Modified Polyphenylene Oxide by a Direct Fiber Feeding Extrusion Process

Abstract

Polyphenylene oxide (PPO) polymers have good mechanical, electrical, and thermal properties, but they have poor processability owing to their quite high melt viscosity. This hinders the manufacturing processes of fiber-reinforced thermoplastics that have enhanced mechanical and physical properties. Although PPO was modified by blending with polystyrene (PS) or polyamide to improve processability, the modified PPO (mPPO) still had a high melt viscosity compared with other polymers. Thus, the fiber-reinforced mPPO is manufactured by compounding with chopped fiber, while various methods are applied to manufacture the fiber-reinforced polypropylene and polyamide in order to improve properties. One of the methods is a direct fiber feeding method, which can keep the longer fiber length because of a direct and continuous roving yarn feeding without chopping. Therefore, the composite manufactured by the direct fiber feeding method is expected to improve the mechanical properties. Hence, this study aims to investigate the feasibility of a direct fiber feeding extrusion process for manufacturing glass-fiber-reinforced mPPO or GFmPPO. The manufactured GF/mPPO composites exhibited increased tensile and flexural properties as the fiber content increased up to 50 wt% of GF owing to the predominant effects of fiber content. Nevertheless, the larger core area in the cross-section micrograph of the tensile specimen of the GF/mPPO composite with 50 wt% of GF was observed to reduce the fiber efficiency factor for tensile strength. Meanwhile, the impact strength of the GF/mPPO composites decreased with increasing GF content. This is attributed to the insufficient fiber length for the impact strength. As the GF content increased, the glass transition temperature slightly decreased. This result was interpreted as being a result of thermal degradation during the extrusion process to manufacture the GF/mPPO masterbatch. The results of the dynamic mechanical analyses, e.g., storage modulus and tan δ, show the good correlation with the increased flexural modulus, the decreased glass transition temperature, and the impact strength as the GF content increased.

Comparison of properties of carbon reinforced plastic obtained on the basis of semicrystalline polyimideR‐BAPBand other high‐temperature‐resistant thermoplastic matrices

“…The operating temperature of CFRP with the R-BAPB matrix in the crystallized state can reach 300 C. In addition to PI, polyetheretherketone (PEEK), polysulfone, polyphenylene sulfide, polyphenylene oxide are currently considered as promising thermoplastics for the production of heat-resistant carbon plastics. [24][25][26][27][28][29][30] Among this group of thermoplastics, the most interesting polymer for the production of the heat resistant carbon plastics is semicrystalline PEEK with a glass transition temperature T g ≈ 143 C and a melting point T m ≈ 340 C. 26 Despite the significant progress achieved in recent decades in the field of optimizing matrix compositions for heat resistant CFRP, the tasks of improving the manufacturability of processing, increasing the values of both the maximum and minimum operating temperatures and interlayer fracture toughness remain topical. The purpose of this work is to compare the properties of carbon fiber reinforced plastics obtained on the basis of semicrystaline polyimide R-BAPB with a number of commercial hightemperature-resistant thermoplastic matrices in a wide temperature range.…”

Physical Properties of Modified Polyphenylene Oxide as a Composite Material for Hydrogen Fuel Cell Stack Enclosure Suitable for Injection Molding

“…Lee et al investigated the phase structure and rheological properties according to the kneading conditions in a Nylon/PPO composite using Graphene Oxide (GO) [6], and Habaue et al achieved improved physical properties by synthesizing PPO through oxidative coupling polymerization utilizing a copper chloride (CuCl)/pyridine catalyst system [7]. Moreover, Ahn et al explored the fabrication of composite materials by adding Glass Fiber (GF) to mPPO mixed with PS and PA [8], and Choi et al presented the characteristics and uses of mPPO, as well as its current domestic and international status [9]. Liu et al added an MgTiO 3 -Ca 0.7 La 0.2 TiO 3 (MTCLT) ceramic to mPPO, which is a mixture of PPO and High-Impact Poly-Styrene (HIPS), thereby showcasing a material that can be resistant to dielectric loss and applicable to the microwave communication field due to its improved thermal and mechanical properties [10].…”