Polyaryl sulfide is a polymer compound alternately connected by sulfur atom and aryl structure. Polyphenylene sulfide is the most important and widely used polyaromatic sulfide resin [ 1 2 ]. Polyphenylene sulfide is a type of special engineering plastic (high-performance engineering plastics) that has the best performance among the plastics with long-term use temperatures ≥150 °C [ 3 4 ]. The production and demand of polyphenylene sulfide are second only to polyamide, polyformaldehyde, polycarbonate, modified polyphenylene ether, and polybutylene terephthalate. Polyphenylene sulfide is the sixth largest engineering plastic in terms of usage [ 5 9 ].
11,12,3, and the density will increase after modification. The flame retardancy of polyphenylene sulphide is good, and its oxygen index is as high as 46–53% [17,20,23,24,25,28,29,30,31,The molecular structure of polyphenylene sulphide is relatively simple, and the primary molecular chain is alternately arranged by benzene ring and sulfur atoms. Among them, the benzene ring structure of polyphenylene sulphide is rigid, and the thioether bond provides flexibility for polyphenylene sulphide [ 10 13 ]. The appearance of polyphenylene sulphide is white or beige, with high crystallinity, and a hard and brittle polymer [ 14 15 ]. The density of pure polyphenylene sulphide is about 1.3 g/cm, and the density will increase after modification. The flame retardancy of polyphenylene sulphide is good, and its oxygen index is as high as 46–53% [ 16 18 ]. Although polyphenylene sulphide has a high melting point, it has low melting viscosity and good fluidity [ 19 21 ]. It can be processed by general thermoplastic resin and made into fibres and fabrics, films, coatings, and high-precision products. Since the advent of polyphenylene sulphide, it has been favoured by high-end users in the fields of electronics/electrical, automotive, precision instruments/instruments/machinery, the petroleum and chemical industries, food and textile machinery, national defence, and cutting-edge technology [ 22 26 ]. It has become one of the preferred plastic structural materials required in these important industries under extreme conditions such as high temperature, high humidity, strong corrosion, and strong radiation [ 27 32 ].
The brittleness of polyphenylene sulphide significantly affects its scope of application. Scholars have studied how to improve the brittleness of polyphenylene sulphide [ 33 34 ]. There are two main methods of doing so. One is to add the appropriate amount of polymer materials to polyphenylene sulphide for copolymerization modification, such as the polyphenylene sulphide/polyethene terephthalate alloy, polyphenylene sulphide/nylon 6 alloy, polyphenylene sulphide/polyamide alloy, etc. Chen, Chen-Ming et al. synthesized epoxy-modified polyethene (PE-g-GMA) by an extrusion grafting reaction. The mechanical properties of the composites can be effectively improved by adding PE-g-GMA to a polyphenylene sulphide alloy [ 35 ]. The other is to fill fibre reinforcement in polyphenylene sulphide, such as glass, carbon, basalt and aramid. Manjunath and Attel prepared E-glass fibre reinforced polyphenylene sulphide composites by compression moulding. The results showed that the polyphenylene sulphide composites filled with 30 wt% glass fibre have the best mechanical properties, such as tensile, bending, impact strength, and dielectric strength [ 27 ]. These two methods make up for the deficiency of the performance of polyphenylene sulphide.
37,Currently, the cost of copolymerization modification is high, the technology is complicated, and it is challenging to implement in industry. Adding woven fabric reinforcement to polyphenylene sulphide has become an effective way to solve the brittleness of polyphenylene sulphide [ 36 38 ]. Zhang and Shouyu treated it with plasma to prepare glass fibre reinforced polyphenylene sulphide composites, which improved the mechanical properties of the composites. However, this is a physical method which will cause some damage to the material itself [ 39 ]. Jeong, Yeon studied the properties of glass fibre reinforced polyphenylene sulphide composites at different processing temperatures. However, the processing method is screw extrusion, which is unsuitable for preparing large-scale composites [ 20 ]. Wang, Wenchao studied the thermal ageing properties of glass fibre reinforced polyphenylene sulphide composites at 250 °C, but the temperature was relatively straightforward [ 37 ].
There are few studies on the effect of processing temperature on the properties of laminated composites, and much attention has been paid to the modification methods which do not affect the basic properties of the materials. In this paper, glass fibre fabric was used as the reinforcement and polyphenylene sulphide as the matrix, glass fibre fabric was treated with silane coupling agent KH560, and composites were prepared by the laminated hot pressing method. The effect of process parameters on the properties of glass fibre fabric-reinforced polyphenylene sulphide composites was studied.