Impact of UV irradiation on high-temperature behavior of polyphenylene sulfide fiber

The impact of UV radiation on the high-temperature behavior of polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) fiber was investigated in this study. The ultimate strength, failure strain elasticity modulus and toughness were employed to evaluate the degradation caused by the coupling effects of UV radiation and high temperature. The degradation characteristics of PPS fiber were observed and evaluated based on the scanning electron microscope (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The results show that both UV exposure and high temperature can effectively reduce the mechanical performance of PPS fiber. The ultimate strength, failure strain and toughness were reduced to the minimum value after UV exposure 150h at room temperature. Both the initial and second elastic modulus of PPS fiber exhibited obvious decreasing trends with the UV exposure time and temperature increasing. The micro defects and molecular structure changes were detected as the degradation characteristics of PPS fiber caused by the coupling effects of UV radiation and high temperature. The Weibull model was applied to quantitatively analyze the dispersion of strength of PPS fiber under extreme conditions.