Influence of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) content on mechanical and tribological properties of poly(ether ether ketone)/PTFE coatings prepared by electrostatic powder spraying technique

Poly(ether ether ketone) (PEEK)/polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) composite coatings with different PTFE contents were successfully fabricated using electrostatic spraying. The crystalline structure of the PEEK/PTFE coatings was characterized by X-ray diffraction analysis. The effects of PTFE addition in the composite coatings on the hardness, adhesion, and tribological performance were discussed. The hardness and adhesion level of PEEK/PTFE coatings were not significantly affected by the addition of PTFE, which indicated that the coating possesses excellent mechanical properties. The PEEK/PTFE coatings showed better tribological performance than traditional PEEK coating. The PTFE/PTFE-3 (3 wt% mass fraction of PTFE in composite coating) coating has a friction coefficient of 0.133 (PEEK is 0.149) and wear rates of 3.8 × 10 −5 mm 3 N −1 m −1 (PEEK is 4.4 × 10 −5 mm 3 N −1 m −1 ).