Ultralow wear Perfluoroalkoxy (PFA) and alumina composites

作者：Sidebottom Mark A; Pitenis Angela A; Junk Christopher P; Kasprzak Daniel J; Blackman Gregory S; Burch Heidi E; Harris Kathryn L; Sawyer W Gregory; Krick Brandon A

来源：Wear, 2016, 362: 179-185.

DOI：10.1016/j.wear.2016.06.003

• Wear
• Fluoropolymers
• PFA
• Alumina
• Solid Lubricant
• Screw injection molding

Fluoropolymers have unique mechanical, chemical, and tribological properties (low friction coefficients) but their use as solid lubricants is inhibited by high wear rates (1-5X10(-4) mm(3)/Nm). The addition of certain types of alpha-alumina has been shown to reduce the wear rate of PTFE by over three orders of magnitude, but due to its extremely high molecular weight PTFE cannot be screw injection molded. However, PFA, a perfluorinated copolymer of tetrafluoroethylene (TFE) and a perfluorinated alkylvinyl ether (PAVE), can be. Teflon (R) PFA 340 samples with various weight fractions of alpha-alumina (0%, 5%, 7.5%, 10%) were injection molded, and samples from each mold were wear tested against stainless steel (P=6.3 MPa, nu=50.8 mm/s). Experiments showed that the friction behavior of the PFA 340-alpha alumina composite was very close to that of both unfilled PFA 340 and PTFE-alpha alumina composites. The wear rate of unfilled PFA 340 was 1.4X10(-4) mm(3)/Nm, and dropped to 4.0X10(-8) mm(3)/Nm for the PFA-alpha alumina composites. Just as in the case of PTFE-alpha alumina composites, these PFA composites generated brown-colored tribofilms on both the polymer and metal surfaces, which were indicative of tribochemical changes. ATR-IR and FTIR spectra of each surface showed evidence for the generation of perfluorinated carboxylate salts and waters of hydration. This spectral similarity between PTFE and PFA 340 samples shows that the same tribological mechanism found in PTFE-alpha alumina composites is responsible for ultralow wear in PFA-alpha alumina composites as well.

• 出版日期2016-9-15