Jean Marie Brady

The effect of thermal ageing on impact-modified engineering resins

Abstract The effects of sub- T g ageing on the impact properties of neat versus impact-modified poly (ethylene terephthalate) (PET), polycarbonate (PC) and a glycol-substituted PET polyester (PETG) were studied. Notched Izod bars of unaged neat PC fail in a ductile manner at room temperature whereas PET and PETG bars fail in a brittle (craze-initiated) mode. When PC is aged or tested at −20°C, however, the PC fails by the same brittle mode as the polyesters. This behaviour is attributed to an increase in yield stress and the subsequent change in the stress state during impact from more of a plane stress to plane strain state. At the strain rates employed, this causes the failure mechanism to switch from shear yielding to crazing. The embrittlement that accompanies ageing is greatly suppressed by the addition of impact modifiers to neat resins. Toughness in the impact-modified materials is believed to derive from both an increase in the number of deformation sites as well as the promotion of shear yielding in the matrix phase even after ageing or during low-temperature impact.