Carbon-Carbon(C/C) composites are utilized for numerous severe-environment applications because of their light weight, high strength and modulus at elevated temperatures and thermal stability. These properties make C/C composites suitable for aerospac...
Carbon-Carbon(C/C) composites are utilized for numerous severe-environment applications because of their light weight, high strength and modulus at elevated temperatures and thermal stability. These properties make C/C composites suitable for aerospace applications including rocket nozzles and exit cones. Conventional organic matrices for the C/C composites such as phenol-formaldehyde resin and pitch have several problems including shrinkage during pyrolysis and repeated carbonization process for high-density composite.
PAA resin has a high branched aromatic polymer with some acetylene groups which contain only carbon and hydrogen. It has a high char yield over 85% at 1,000℃ with a minimum amount of volatile evalution during curing and carbonization. In this study, PAA resin was synthesized using two kinds of Ni-type catalyst for cyclotrimerization of acetylenes, such as [(nickelacetyl acetonate triphenylphosphine(NiAA/PPh₃)] and [Bis(triphenyl- phosphine) dicarbonylnickel(BTPPDC-Ni)], to find out an appropriate catalyst for the mass-production of PAA resin, which can control very high exotherm and exclude gelation. The optimum composition for the matrix of C/C composite was found that the 1,3-/1,4-DEB ratio was 3 and the monofunctional modifier PA was 30wt% of the total DEB. The absence of any peaks in the olefinic region showed that all the acetylene groups formed the aromatic ring without linear polymerization. The PAA resin had good solubility in THF and fluidity even at high (90%) conversion. The optimum usage of BTPPDC-Ni catalyst was only 0.20~0.25wt% whereas NiAA/PPh3 catalyst was 1.0~2.0wt% of the total monomer. And new BTPPDC-Ni catalyst makes it possible to synthesize the PAA resin at low temperature (60℃) whereas NiAA/PPh₃ catalyst showed no reaction at the same temperature. The polymerization rate equation for the synthesis of PAA using BTPPDC-Ni catalyst could be expressed as following equations depending on the two reaction steps: R_(pA)=k_(pA)[M][cat]_(2.25) during the initial increased temperature region, R_(pB)=k_(pB)[M][cat]_(0.62)(at 60℃) at the later region after increasing temperature. On the other hand, the NiAA/PPh₃ catalyst system had R_(p)=k_(p)[M][cat]_(0.32)at 88℃. The PAA-derived C/C composites also showed a high char yield, a low shrinkage and a low mass loss compared with phenolic-derived C/C composites during pyrolysis and carbonization at 1,200℃ under N2. This lower mass loss and lower shrinkage offered the low porosity and the potential for the less fiber-matrix debonding, as confirmed by SEM.
The flexural strength and interlaminar shear strength(ILSS) of PAA-derived C/C composites were higher than those of phenolic-derived composites.
It was expected that PAA resin was a promising matrix for C/C composites having excellent thermal stability and good abrasion properties of C/C composites with improved physical and mechanical properties without any need of further repeated densification process.