Carbonization behaviour of some polyimide resins reinforced with carbon fibers

It was shown that the low weight loss makes the polyimide resins based on a cetyl derivatives of aromatic diamines a promising candidate for carbon-car bon composites. The weight loss of this polyimide resin can reach about 30% in the composite, which is 1.5 times lower than that of the phenol-formald ehyde resin. It is suggested that the lower weight loss of the matrix in ca rbon fiber reinforced polyimide is due to strong fiber-matrix interaction, which can result from cross-linking between the fiber surface and the matri x. On the other hand due to this strong fiber-matrix interaction carbon-car bon composites can undergo brittle failure with crack propagation normal to the fibers. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd, All rights reserved.