Novel graphitic carbon coated IF-WS2 reinforced Poly (ether ether ketone) nanocomposites

Abstract

Unique high performance thermoplastic PEEK ternary nanocomposites reinforced by nano graphitic carbon coated IF-WS2 (inorganic fullerene-like tungsten disulphide) have been prepared and their structures have been characterised by electron microscopy imaging, electron dispersive spectrum elemental and X-ray diffractions scanning. The IF-WS2@C-PEEK composites exhibit impressive improvements in both the mechanical and thermal properties, with an extraordinary 54% enhancement in the ultimate tensile strength at 2 wt% and nearly 235% increase in thermal conductivity at 8 wt%. In addition, they also show an increase in decomposing temperature (over 50C) at higher IF-WS2@C contents. Further investigation reveals the activation energies estimated by Kissinger method to be 61 and 97 kJ∙mol-1 for neat PEEK and IF-WS2@C-PEEK respectively. This is ascribed to the enhanced dispersion ability and better interface bonding between PEEK matrix and IF-WS2@C nanoparticles, which for the first time has been investigated by FTIR and XPS analysis. These significantly improved properties will no doubt expand the applications of the PEEK-based nanocomposites.