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.

为模拟海洋深渊的服役环境，聚合物基复合材料在高静水压力（通常为数十兆帕）海水中的性能表现鲜有研究。本研究分别制备了聚醚醚酮（PEEK）以及碳纤维、玻璃纤维增强的PEEK基复合材料；通过专用设备模拟了从常压至40兆帕的不同静水压力海水环境，并原位表征了PEEK与PEEK基复合材料的海水吸液行为与磨损行为。本研究重点考察了海水静水压力对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：深海环境中静水压力的升高会显著加快PEEK及其复合材料的海水吸液速率；受海水吸液作用影响，纯PEEK与复合材料的力学性能、耐磨性能及结晶度均发生劣化，且劣化程度随海水静水压力的升高而愈发严重。磨损速率与海水静水压力之间呈现出统一形式的指数函数显著相关性，此外，本研究还对深海静水压力产生上述影响的相关作用机制进行了探讨。