Wear resistant PEEK composites with great mechanical properties and high thermal conductivity synergized with carbon fibers and h‐BN nanosheets

Abstract

It is well known that carbon fiber (CF) reinforced PEEK (polyether‐ether‐ketone) (defined as “PEEK/CF”) composites have excellent properties and have been widely used in diverse fields. Meanwhile, hexagonal boron nitride (h‐BN), as an excellent nano reinforcing agent, is often incorporated into polymer to improve its mechanical strength and thermal conductivity. Herein, PEEK matrix was regulated by adding high‐strength CF as the load‐bearing phase and 2D h‐BN sheets as the solid lubricant and thermally conductive fillers prepared by melt blending to achieve the multi‐scale packing of uniform mixing. The results show that h‐BN is well dispersed in PEEK matrix and improves the interfacial bonding between CF and PEEK matrix, exhibiting a good synergistic effect in enhancing tensile properties of composites. PEEK composite with 20 wt% CF and 4 wt% h‐BN (referred as P/20C/4B) exhibits the highest tensile strength (176.05 MPa) and thermal conductivity (0.396 W/(m·K)), which are 97.54% and 126.3% over those of pure PEEK (89.12 MPa; 0.175 W/(m·K)), respectively. In addition, PEEK composite with 10 wt% CF and 4 wt% h‐BN (referred as P/10C/4B) has excellent tribological properties with a friction coefficient of 0.15, the lowest fiction temperature (30.5°C) and a relative low wear rate of 1.62 × 10−6 mm3/(N·m) among them. The synergitic effects of h‐BN and CF on mechanical, tribological properties and thermal conductivity of PEEK composites provides a very broad prospect in their application of low frictional and wear resistant polymeric materials.

Interfacial strengthening and processing of carbon fibers reinforced poly(ether‐ether‐ketone) composites: A mini‐review

“…For the parts with complex surface or fine structure, the shear deformation in the surface and the local relative slip between the layers will occur in the process of forming the surface. However, the CF/PEEK prepreg prepared by electrostatic powder prepreg technology or slurry powder prepreg technology has high hardness and poor in‐layer deformation ability 63 . Therefore, the flexible co‐woven prepreg technology is developed to prepare flexible prepreg 64 .…”

Insight into the tribological properties of cylinder liner-piston ring under the nano BNNs/Cu composite additive lubrication

“…Through the comprehensive exploration by researchers, h-BN has evolved into a foundational material. When combined with other materials possessing exceptional properties, novel materials are formulated, resulting in substantial enhancements to their mechanics, tribological and lubrication effects [18,19]. Chaurasia et al [20] investigated the strengthening properties of h-BN nanosheets on polyethylenebased nanocomposites using experimental and molecular dynamics methods.…”

Effects of the Mesoporous Filler and Oleophilic Property on the Tribological Behavior of Polyetheretherketone Composites

“…Recently, many efforts have been dedicated to the development of polymer composite materials. Among various polymer matrices, polyetheretherketone (PEEK) is widely studied and considered as a promising matrix material in the tribological application field owing to its excellent advantages of high fracture toughness and compression strength, chemical and thermal resistance, and self-lubricating capability. − Different studies on the improvements of the tribological properties of PEEK by adding reinforcements, such as hard particles, , reinforcing fibers, − two-dimensional materials, , or a combination of those, , were conducted. The material type and morphology have significant effects on the tribological behaviors of the polymer composite .…”