STUDY ON THE KINETICS AND MECHANISM OF TH ERMAL-DEGRADATION AND CROSS-LINKING OF PEEK BY TEMPERATURE-PROGRAMMED DECOMPOSITION

The kinetic characteristics of thermal degradation of PEEK was studied by temperature programmed decomposition. The results show that the th ermal degradation of PEEK is not a simple process, but proceeds by thr ee stages. The activation energies are 296.0kJ/mol, 123.7kJ/mol, 153.4 kJ/mol respectively and the reaction order are 1 for all three stages. The mechanism of thermal degradation and cross linking of PEEK is als o discussed. It is concluded that the thermal degradation of PEEK is s tarted from the breakdown of Ar-O bands and the successive degradation is accompanied by thermal crosslinking.