Thermal ageing of PTFE in the melted state: Influence of interdiffusion on the physicochemical structure

Victor Henri (1, 2) , Eric Dantras (1) , Colette Lacabanne (1) , Anca Goleanu Dieudonne (2) , Flavien Koliatene (2)

1 CIRIMAT - Centre interuniversitaire de recherche et d'ingenierie des matériaux
2 SAFRAN Group

PTFE is one of the most used polymer for electrical insulation. For future aircraft, PTFE will be exposed to thermal constraints above its melting temperature. Its high melt viscosity allows PTFE to be operable but it will be subjected to thermal-oxidative ageing. PTFE presents two initial states, associated with its thermal history corresponding to the interdiffusion phenomenon. In the case of thermo-oxidative ageing in the melt, interdiffusion impairs the thermal stability by shifting the thermal degradation towards lower temperature. While interdiffusion reduces the thermal stability for long time ageing, strong physical interactions reduce the impact of degradation on the mechanical behaviour for short time ageing. Chemical ageing induced by degradation promotes recrystallisation of PTFE shorter chains; this crystalline phase modifies the β anelastic relaxation mode. The tan δ thermograms allows us to identify the β1 and β2 components of the anelastic effects of respectively the triclinic/hexagonal and hexagonal/pseudo hexagonal transitions observed by X-Rays Diffraction. Upon chemical ageing, the evolution of the β mode is mainly governed by the decrease in the β2 component corresponding to the pseudo-hexagonal phase.

Mots clés: PTFE; Interdiffusion; Thermal ageing; Dynamic mechanical analysis; Thermal analysis; Physico-chemical structure

Domaines: Matériaux

Victor Henri, Eric Dantras, Colette Lacabanne, Anca Goleanu Dieudonne, Flavien Koliatene. Thermal ageing of PTFE in the melted state: Influence of interdiffusion on the physicochemical structure. Polymer Degradation and Stability, 2020, 171, pp.1-8. ⟨10.1016/j.polymdegradstab.2019.109053⟩. ⟨hal-02436683⟩