Thermal aging and reinforcement type effects on the tribological, thermal, thermomechanical, physical and morphological properties of poly(ether ether ketone) composites

In this study, thermal aging process was applied to glass fiber (GF) and carbon fiber (CF) reinforced poly(ether ether ketone) PEEK composites and effects of this process and reinforcement type on thermal, thermomechanical, tribological, physical and morphological properties of PEEK composites were evaluated. All the results demonstrated that a transcrystalline layer was formed between the fiber and matrix in the composites under applied thermal aging condition and this layer affected the fiber matrix adhesion, reduced the energy dissipation in this region and improved the properties of composites. As a result of this study, it was proved that the thermal aging process is an efficient method to control the thermal, thermomechanical, tribological and physical properties of composites and these properties of composites can be improved by using this method. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.