Data from: Accelerated degradation of polyetheretherketone and its composites in the deep sea

The performance of polymer composites in seawater under high hydrostatic pressure (typically few tens of MPa), for simulating exposures at great depths in seas and oceans, has been little studied. In this paper, PEEK and its composites reinforced by carbon fibers and glass fibers were prepared, respectively. And the seawater environments with different seawater hydrostatic pressure ranging from normal pressure to 40 MPa was simulated with special equipment, in which the seawater absorption and wear behaviors of PEEK and PEEK-based composites were examined in situ. The effects of seawater hydrostatic pressure on the mechanical properties, wear resistance and microstructure of PEEK and its composites were focused on. The results showed that seawater absorption of PEEK and its composites were greatly accelerated by increased hydrostatic pressure in the deep sea. And affected by seawater absorption, both for neat PEEK and composites, the degradation on mechanical properties, wear resistance and crystallinity were induced, the degree of which were increasingly serious with the hydrostatic pressure of seawater environment increasing. And there existed a good correlation in an identical form of exponential function between the wear rate and the seawater hydrostatic pressure. Moreover, the corresponding mechanisms of the effects of deep-sea hydrostatic pressure were also discussed.针对模拟海洋极深区域服役环境的高静水压（通常为数十兆帕）下聚合物基复合材料在海水中的性能，目前相关研究仍较为匮乏。本文分别制备了纯聚醚醚酮(PEEK)及其碳纤维增强、玻璃纤维增强复合材料。采用专用设备模拟了从常压至40 MPa的不同海水静水压环境，并在此环境下原位表征了PEEK及其复合材料的海水吸湿性与磨损行为。本文重点研究了海水静水压对PEEK及其复合材料的力学性能、耐磨性能与微观结构的影响规律。研究结果表明，深海环境中静水压的提升会显著加速PEEK及其复合材料的海水吸湿过程。且受海水吸湿作用影响，纯PEEK及其复合材料均会出现力学性能、耐磨性能与结晶度的劣化，且劣化程度随海水静水压的升高而加剧。磨损速率与海水静水压之间呈现出良好的指数函数相关性。此外，本文还探讨了深海静水压产生上述影响的相关作用机制。