THERMAL STABILITY OF POLYMER MATRIX COMPOSITES

The material performance needs of the aerospace industry are trending towards higher temperatures across all market segments. Understanding the capability limits of both today' s composites and the material of the future is critical for expansion of the performance envelope for carbon fibre reinforced polymers. Historically, bismaleimide (BMI) and cyanate ester (CE) resins have been used when the thermal performance of industry standard epoxy composites is not sufficient. At these temperatures, additional stability factors come into play beyond the hot/wet performance of the system. In this work, the thermal performance of next generation high temperature composites is investigated in terms of thermo-oxidative degradation, glass transition temperature (Tg) stability and thermal shock resistance. The results from these investigations highlight the advances that Syensqo has achieved in improving the thermal stability of future BMI materials in comparison to the current state of the art. These improvements are achieved while maintaining the excellent mechanical performance associated with BMI matrix composites and enhancing processability in terms of cure and post cure cycle times.