Thermal and morphological behavior of PEEK/PEI blends with polyphosphazene coated carbon nanotube

PEEK is a semicrystalline thermoplastic polymer with excellent thermal and chemical stability, especially used in a wide range of applications for automobile and aerospace industries. It is suitable for use as a matrix material in the preparation of thermoplastic composites owing to its good adhesion to glass and carbon fibers. Blending of PEEK/PEI combines the hybrid properties of both of them. It has been established that PEEK and PEI are molecularly miscible in the amorphous state [1].

The present study is focused to investigate the influence of polyphosphazene coated multiwalled carbon nanotube on the performance of PEEK/PEI blends. The thermal behaviour of the composites has been studied by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) which demonstrates an increase in the decomposition temperature of PEEK/PEI blends at higher loading of polyphosphazene coated MWCNT. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) studies reveal that the melting temperature (Tm) has increased with higher loading of polyphosphazene coated MWCNT in PEEK/PEI blends. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) studies depict that with the increase of loading of polyphosphazene coated MWCNT, the increase of adhesion between matrix and dispersed phase. The crystallinity of the nanocomposites has been evaluated through X-Ray diffractometry [XRD].