Ano-Scale Mechanical, Viscoelastic, and Tribological Behaviors of Polyaryletherketone Modified Bismaleimide Blends.

A high-performance bismaleimide (BMI) resin blends containing the polyaryletherketone (PAEK) were prepared. The nanomechanical behaviors, viscoelasticity, and tribological properties of the bismaleimide resins were investigated by nanoindentation/scratch methods. It was established that the hardness (H) decreased, while the elastic modulus (E) increased, i.e., a reduction of plasticity index (H /E) values through the quasi-static nano-indentation testing. Meanwhile, the indentation response was mainly affected by the plastic deformation in response to a stress. The unmodified bismaleimide resins demonstrated better load-bearing capacity and indentation recovery ability, lower penetration depth than the other three specimens. Effects of angular frequency and average contact force on the viscoelastic properties were also investigated by the dynamic nanoindentation mode. The results revealed that variations of the loss tangent curves nearly were similar to each other, first increased then decreased gradually at contact force of 150 and 300 μN. Topography and profiles of the indentation and scratch surfaces were also discussed. Based on the results of the nanoscratching tests, when the PAEK content was 10 phr, the coefficient of friction during plowing was the lowest, exhibited the better scratch/wear resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]