Mechanical Properties Thermoplastic Laminates of Polycarbonate-Polyetherimide Blend with Glass Fibers

Abstract

Thermoplastic Laminates of Polycarbonate (PC)/Polyetherimide (PEI) blend with glass fibers were prepared by solution blending of PC & PEI in different ratio of 100/0, 95/5, 90/10, 85/15 and 80/20 using Dichloromethane as solvent followed by applying the resulting blend solutions over the cut sheet size (30 × 25 cm) of woven mat glass fibers & dried overnight, then stacked up 12 flies of the impregnates and consolidated in a hot press at 300oC and 3-4 ton (30 kg/cm2) pressure for a duration of one hour & cooled. The laminates of PC/PEI blends/woven mat glass fibers were studied for their mechanical properties viz: Tensile, Flexural, Impact and Inter Laminar Shear Strength and thermo-mechanical properties viz: TGA, DSC, DMA as well as examination of morphology by SEM. The mechanical properties of laminates of PC/PEI blends/woven mat glass fibers shows an increasing trend in Inter Laminar Shear Strength, Tensile and Flexural Strength upto 20% PEI while Impact Strength shows an increase upto 10% and decreases while the percentage of PEI increases. Glass transition temperature of the laminates increases with increasing content of PEI and the degradation kinetics of TGA reveal that the decomposition temperature decreases with increasing content of PEI. DMA of laminates shows that the thermo-mechanical properties get improved at a higher temperature with the presence of PEI.