Investigation on corrosion and mechanical behavior of sintered electrical corrosion resistance glass-reinforced polyimide composites under acidic environment

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this study, the effects of electrical corrosion resistance (ECR) glass fiber on corrosion and mechanical behavior of polyimide (PI) matrix composites prepared using spark plasma sintering (SPS) process were investigated. The morphologies, corrosion properties, and mechanical properties were characterized using scanning electron microscope (SEM), immersion and polarization tests, and nanoindentation tests, respectively. The SEM results revealed that the ECR glass particles were evenly distributed in the PI matrix. The resulting analysis depicts that the introduction of ECR particles contents (5, 10, and 15 wt%) in the PI matrix improved its hardness and elastic modulus both before and after corrosion. The corrosion rate of the pure PI was recorded to be reduced by 61.8%, 50.4%, and 38.9%, respectively, at 5, 10, and 15 wt% loading of ECR particles. This depicts that the ECR glass particles lead to anti-corrosion performance improvement of the pure PI. Finally, the findings suggest the potential of ECR filler materials in the development of novel PI composites for anti-corrosion and mechanical load-bearing applications.