Enhanced mechanical and thermal properties of carbon fiber-reinforced thermoplastic polyketone composites

Advances in thermoplastic composites have attracted interest among researchers for the development of new high-performance and recyclable engineering plastics. Herein, a novel polyketone (PK) composite containing carbon fiber (CF), as well as its thermophysical characteristics, was investigated. PK composites with different CF contents ranging from 0 to 30 wt% were fabricated through the two-stage extruder-injection molding process. The performances of the raw and composite materials were measured by various methods, and we found that the incorporation of CF into PK enhances the thermal stability, conductivity, and mechanical properties of the composites simultaneously. To theoretically evaluate the thermomechanical characteristics of the PK composites, a series of numerical simulation was carried out. The Kapitza resistance, which was assumed to be a model constant in this study, was determined through a genetic algorithm. The predicted properties of composites with varying CF were observed to be in good qualitative agreement with the experimental results.