Co-authors​ :

 Jin Woo YI (KOREA, REPUBLIC OF) 

Carbon fiber-reinforced composites with thermoplastics (CFRTPs) have been utilized for structural parts due to their high toughness, formability, and recyclability. However, the thermoplastics also have some drawbacks. One of those is that they must be processed under relatively high processing temperature due to their high melt viscosity. Another is the low interfacial adhesion strength with reinforcement fibers resulting in poor mechanical properties of the corresponding composites. In order to overcome these, we have developed a new thermoplastic matrix resin based on polyethersulfone (PES). The resin was blended with a Tg enhancer and a functional plasticizer to lower the processing temperature which could be adjusted by the appropriate mixing ratio of the additives to base PES resin. In particular, the composites with the resin showed better compressive strength and interlaminar shear strength as well as tensile strength than those of general CFRTPs. The reason was confirmed by the fact that the resin has many functional groups originated from the plasticizer which can improve the adhesion with the carbon fibers. The functional groups were characterized by FT-IR analysis. In addition, we also confirmed through DSC measurement that the Tg and processing temperature were affected by the softening temperature of the plasticizer and its composition. Finally, we fabricated the sound carbon composites displaying the high Tg (~185°C) measured by DMA and good mechanical properties. The CAI (Compression strength after impact) of the composites will be tested to prove the toughness which is one of the critical properties determining the preference of thermoplastic composites compared to thermoset composites.