Study of heat and humidity effect on phthalonitrile matrix

Abstract

The effect of high humidity and temperature on a hardened phthalonitrile matrix is studied in this work. The kinetic dependences of a weight change in the samples during their exposure in a climatic chamber in a stationary mode are presented. The structural modifications in the matrix after thermal and humidity impacts are probed via thermal mechanical analysis. Moisture absorption is found to exhibit predominantly a surface behavior. In addition, the thermal treatment of the phthalonitrile matrix samples in an inert environment is substantiated to reduce moisture absorption.