Abrasive Wear Resistance of Polymers Reinforced by Silicon Carbide Nanofibers

Scratch test was carried out to investigate the abrasion wear resistance gained by the polymeric composites. They were polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), low density polyethylene (LDPE), high density polyethylene (HDPE), polypropylene (PP) and epoxy epoxy reinforced by silicon oxide nanofibers (SiCNF). Experiments were carried out using normal loads of 5, 10, and 15 N. The experiments showed that PMMA composites displayed the highest friction and lowest wear values among the tested polymers, while the minimum friction values were observed at unfilled PMMA. The improvement in friction and wear may be attributed to the resistance to scratch gained by composites reinforced by SiCNF. The decreasing behavior can reflex the increase of abrasive wear resistance offered by SiCNF. Further increase of SiCNF up to 0.5 wt. % increased wear due to the drop in cohesion of the matrix. Frictioncoefficient increased to maximum showing that composites resisted scratch by the gained strength due to SiCNF reinforcement, while reached minimumvalues mostly at higher SiCNF content as result of the drop of the cohesion of the polymeric matrix. Besides, the deterioration of wear at SiCNF content higher than 0.5 wt. % may be attributed by the agglomeration of SiCNF inside the polymeric matrix that influenced the tribological behavior of composites. Homogeneous mixing and good dispersion procedures are recommended.