Therefore, the simultaneous improvement of the wear resistance and electrical conductivity of PEEK by the incorporation of a cost-effective filler using melt mixing is very desirable for industrial applications. Also, metals have been extensively replaced by high wear resistance PEEK materials in mechanical and biomaterial parts such as bearings, pumps, pistons, dental implants, trauma, knee, and spine ( Kalin et al., 2015 Kurtz et al., 2019). For example, electrically conductive PEEK materials have been utilised to manufacture reflectors for parabolic space antenna in satellites, cryogenic storage tanks in space launchers, electro-thermal de-icing materials in icebreaker vessels, antistatic catheters, disposable surgical instruments, and sterilisation trays ( Flanagan et al., 2017 Kalra et al., 2019 Rival et al., 2019 Pan et al., 2020). Also, the improvement of the electrical conductivity and wear resistance of PEEK has extended its applications noticeably ( Pei et al., 2019 Puértolas et al., 2019 Zhang et al., 2019 Schroeder et al., 2020). These properties and the easier processing of PEEK as compared with metals, biocompatibility, and transparency to radiation have increased interest in its usage in industries such as biomedical, aerospace, and automotive. Poly (ether ether ketone) (PEEK) has a variety of promising properties such as high chemical resistance, outstanding mechanical properties, and good thermal and dimensional stabilities due to its aromatic and semicrystalline backbone. The wear resistance of the composite containing 3 vol% EG was enhanced by 37% compared with the neat PEEK. The addition of 5 vol% of EG to PEEK increased the tensile and flexural modulus from 3.84 and 3.55 GPa to 4.15 and 4.40 GPa, decreased the strength from 96.73 and 156.41 MPa to 62 and 118.19 MPa, and the elongation at break from 27.09 and 12.9% to 4 and 4.6%, respectively.
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The neat PEEK exhibits the standard tensile and flexural stress-strain behaviour of thermoplastics, and the composites exhibit elastic behaviour initially followed by a weak plastic deformation before fracture. However, after removing their thermal and stress histories, the EG platelets promoted nucleation and increased the PEEK crystallinity remarkably, indicating that annealing of the PEEK composites can improve their mechanical performance. The neat PEEK and composites containing 0.5–5 vol% EG indicated a cold-crystallisation peak in the first heating scan of a non-isothermal differential scan calorimetry (DSC) test and their crystallinity degrees changed slightly.
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The formation of a three-dimensional EG network led to a rapid increase in the storage modulus of the melt of the 2 vol% of EG-loaded composite at a frequency of 0.1 rad/s and temperature of 370☌. The electrical conductivity of the composites with 5 vol% of EG exhibits a sharp rise in the electrical conductivity range of antistatic materials because of the formation of conductive paths. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images indicate that distribution and dispersion of EG platelets in the PEEK matrix are enhanced at higher EG loadings.
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The morphological, electrical, rheological, thermal, mechanical, and wear properties of the composites were investigated. In this work, antistatic, high-performance composites of poly (ether ether ketone) (PEEK) and concentrations of 0.5–7 vol% expanded graphite (EG) were fabricated via twin-screw extrusion and injection moulding at mould temperatures of 200☌. 2Denroy Plastics, Bangor, United Kingdom.1School of Engineering, Ulster University, Newtownabbey, United Kingdom.Mozaffar Mokhtari 1*, Edward Archer 1, Noel Bloomfield 2, Eileen Harkin-Jones 1 and Alistair Mcilhagger 1