Preparation and thermal neutron shielding property of aluminum borate whisker/carboxylated polyphenylene sulfide composites

In this work, polyphenylene sulfide (PPSdc) containing carboxyl groups in the side chain was synthesized and aluminium borate whisker/PPSdc composites with corrosion resistance, high temperature resistance and radiation resistance were prepared by melt blending. The mechanical properties of the composites were excellent with tensile strength of 69.0–74.4 MPa and flexural strength of 109.4–126.8 MPa. The materials were insoluble in organic solvents, such as NMP and DMF, at room temperature, and had good corrosion resistance. The TGA results showed that the T 5% of PPSdc/W (40%) was as high as 500.3°C, which proved that the composite had excellent thermal stability. The thermal neutron shielding performance test showed that the neutron transmittance of PPSdc/W (40%) was only 26.56%, and the mass attenuation coefficient (µ/ρ) reached up to 3.03 cm 2 /g, indicating that the composite material had excellent thermal neutron shielding performance.