Cyclic (phenylene sulfide) treated carbon fiber for facile preparation of high performance PEEK based anti-wear composites

Improving the surface activity of carbon fiber (CF) via a sizing agent is an efficient approach to enhance the performance of CF reinforced polymer composites. However, the conventional sizing agents usually readily decompose at high temperature. In this work, a novel heat resistant sizing agent is coated directly on the CF surface by in-situ thermal ring-opening polymerization of cyclic phenylene sulfide oligomers (CPS) in air. Studies indicate that the novel sizing agent is oxygenated poly (phenylene sulfide) (PPS), possessing high temperature stability. Properties of the PPS sized CF (CF-CT) filled PEEK based composite are investigated by using the original CF/PEEK composite as a reference. The results reveal that the CF-CT composite exhibit significantly higher tensile strength, lower average friction coefficient and wear rate when CF content exceeds 20 wt%. It is reasonably ascribed to the stronger interface interaction between the PPS sized CF and PEEK, which effectively promotes the enhancement effect of CF in the composite material.