Polyetherketone powder/epoxy blends with low viscosity and high mechanical properties

The difficult forming process and construction caused by high viscosity has been the main problem restricting the application of high-performance thermoplastic/epoxy blends. In this contribution, low viscous polyetherketone (PEK)/diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A epoxy resin (DGEBA) blends were prepared by mixing the ultrafine PEK powder and DGEBA monomer at ambient temperature. Rheological behaviour shows that complex viscosity of the undissolved blends containing 20 wt% PEK powder is two orders of magnitude lower than that of the dissolved one. Interestingly, diffusion and phase separation of PEK powder in the undissolved PEK/DGEBA/2-methylimidazole/dicyandiamide (M-DICY) blends are affected by the curing processes. Phase-inverted morphology was observed after curing at 120°C/1h + 160°C/0.5 h for the undissolved 20 wt% PEK/DGEBA/M-DICY blends which also exhibited outstanding tensile strength and lap shear strength both at 298 and 77 K. We believe this work should provide a new insight into the preparation of advanced thermoplastic/epoxy blends.