Kinetics of strain‐induced crystallization during injection molding of short fiber composites of poly(ether ether ketone)

Abstract Crystallization kinetics of short glass and carbon fiber composites of poly(ether ether ketone) (PEEK) under melt‐strain conditions have been obtained for the first time, using in ‐ situ wide angle X‐ray scattering, and have been correlated to a model based on the Avrami equation in order to enable minimization of the processing time for injection molding of these materials. It has been demonstrated that increased flow rate of the melt in the mold and, consequently, increased shear rate accelerates the crystallization process of PEEK composites, analogous to similar trends observed previously in PEEK resin. Short glass fiber composites of PEEK crystallize slower than the resin under identical processing conditions, while short carbon fiber composites crystallize faster than the resin, except at the highest mold temperatures and the lowest flow rates. A model based on the Avrami equation has been proposed to fit the kinetics data obtained experimentally. The Avrami coefficient has been calculated and Arrhenius plots have been used to predict the crystallization kinetics at temperatures lower than those at which experimental data have been obtained here. Fiber orientation, flexural elastic modulus, and flexural fracture toughness of the composites have also been evaluated.