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This study focuses on the characterization of acrylic reactive mixtures designed for liquid composite molding (LCM) and yielding thermoplastic matrices for composite applications. Conversion degree, complex viscosity, and cure exothermicity are tracked during the radical polymerization. Results show that these systems suffer from Trommsdorff's effect, that is, the polymerization is highly exothermic. The rheological study also highlights a limit of injectability for LCM processes around a conversion degree of 10%. The vitrification curve, which correlates conversion degree to glass-transition temperature, has been established for methyl methacrylate/poly(methyl methacrylate) mixtures. It constitutes a useful tool to identify the thermal conditions required to reach a full monomer conversion and thus, to manage the residual monomer content. The use of such acrylic-based reactive solutions for fast LCM processing appears appropriate as fully polymerized matrices were obtained in less than 5 min at 90 C.

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The effects of PEEK degradation on consolidation of commingled semi-finished products have been investigated. Two commingled semi-finished products provided by two different suppliers have been studied and compared to a powdered fabric based on the same PEEK grade. Both were manufactured from aligned AS4 carbon and PEEK yarns but the first product referred as the NCF1 has a lower commingling level than the second one identified as the NCF2. Contrary to what could be expected, under the same processing conditions, consolidation of the NCF1 and the NCF2 systematically results in a high porosity content, above 10%. Fourier Transform Infrared spectrophotometry (FTIR) in ATR mode and Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC) have shown small molecular structure modifications of PEEK yarns compared to the raw material, such as a shift of molar mass distributions towards lower molar mass and the appearance of C-H absorption bands attributed to non-aromatic alkanes. These modifications have been attributed to sizing of PEEK filament. Calorimetric (DSC) and rheological analyses have demonstrated that the presence of sizing in the semi-finished products have huge consequences on the degradation kinetics. The crystallization temperature decreases and the viscosity increases significantly. This acceleration of the degradation kinetics is the reason of the poor consolidation behavior during composite manufacturing. The conditions of melt spinning extrusion under which the neat PEEK is transformed into filament are therefore a key factor of PEEK degradation.