Polyether ketones incorporating

More tractable and potentially useful polyether ketones, incorporating phenylene-carborane-phenylene units, and with properties suitable for high temperature applications, have been prepared by acylation reactions (using trifluoromethanesulfonic acid as both medium and catalyst) between appropriate dicarboxylic acids and phenoxyphenylcarboranes. For example, the polyetherketone 20 (Scheme 3.6), derived from bis(4-phenoxyphenyl)-para-carborane and biphenyl-4,4 -dicarboxylic acid, is essentially amorphous on isolation from trifluoromethanesulfonic acid, but crystallizes when heated above its glass transition temperature (267°C) before hnally melting at about 390 0... 

As seen in Table 3.1, the incorporation of 50% glass fiber into polyether ether ketone (PEEK) increased the tensile strength from 92 to 150 MPa and increased the flexural modulus from 3.7 to 10.3 GPa, while decreasing the elongation at break from 50% to 2.2%. 

For some applications, however, an improvanent in the mechanical properties of polyether ether ketone would be desirable. It has been found that the incorporation of 30% glass fiber into the formulation produces a distinct improvement in mechanical properties without compromising electrical properties ... 

Aromatic polymers have many desirable properties such as good lap shear strength, thermal stabihty, and tensile strength, which make them useful for a wide variety of applications. The term aromatic polymer is used herein to mean a polymer, which has aromatic groups incorporated in the repeat unit of their backbone chain. Such polymers include polyimides (Pis), polyetherimides, polysulfones, polyether sulfones, polyaryl ether ketones, polycarbonates, poly-arylates, and the like [20]. 

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