Abstract: In order to avoid occurrence of severe seizure of motion components exposed to mixed and boundary lubrication, e.g., in engine and transmission systems, to replace metal-metal friction pairs by polymer-metal pairs provides a potential solution. In the present work, the tri-bological behaviors of short carbon fiber (SCF)-reinforced epoxy (EP) composites when lubricated with polyalphaolefin base oil were investigated. It was identified that the running-in tendency and friction coefficient of the composites show a close dependence on the lubrication regimes. SCF improves greatly the wear resistance of EP although they increase slightly the friction coefficient. It was demonstrated that further addition of monodispersed SiO2 nanoparticles into the EP composite filled with SCF and graphite leads to higher wear resistance. The reinforcement of SCF and the formation of a high-performance tribofilm on the surface of steel counterpart play an important role on the tribological properties of EP-based materials.

KeyWords Plus: RAY PHOTOELECTRON-SPECTROSCOPY; POLYMER COMPOSITES; SURFACE-TREATMENT; WEAR; NANOCOMPOSITES; NANOPARTICLES; GRAPHITE; FRICTION; IRON; PERFORMANCE

Published in TRIBOLOGY LETTERS, 62 (3):10.1007/s11249-016-0685-8 JUN 2016