In Vacuo Tribological Behavior of Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and Alumina Nanocomposites: The Importance of Water for Ultralow Wear

Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) is widely regarded as an excellent candidate for solid lubrication in vacuum. However, it is often precluded from many practical applications due to its intrinsically high wear rate. Over the past decade, it has been discovered that small loading fractions of alumina n...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Tribology letters 2014-01, Vol.53 (1), p.189-197
Main Authors: Pitenis, Angela A., Ewin, Jeffrey J., Harris, Kathryn L., Sawyer, W. Gregory, Krick, Brandon A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alumina
Aluminum oxide
Chemistry and Materials Science
Corrosion and Coatings
Friction
Loading
Lubrication
Materials Science
Nanocomposite
Nanocomposites
Nanotechnology
Orders of magnitude
Original Paper
Physical Chemistry
Polytetrafluoroethylene
Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE)
Polytetrafluoroethylenes
Product design
Solid lubrication
Surfaces and Interfaces
Theoretical and Applied Mechanics
Thin Films
Tribo-chemistry
Tribochemistry
Tribological behaviors
Tribology
Vacuum
Vacuum condition
Vacuum environment
Wear
Wear and friction
Wear of materials
Wear rate
Wear resistance
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) is widely regarded as an excellent candidate for solid lubrication in vacuum. However, it is often precluded from many practical applications due to its intrinsically high wear rate. Over the past decade, it has been discovered that small loading fractions of alumina nanofillers can increase the wear resistance of PTFE by three to four orders of magnitude. This dramatic increase in wear resistance has in turn prompted numerous tribological studies to examine the robustness of this performance. In this study, the wear and friction behavior of unfilled PTFE and PTFE and alumina nanocomposites were evaluated under a broad range of vacuum environments from 760 to 4 × 10 −6  Torr. The nanocomposites of PTFE/alumina showed a dramatic increase in wear of over two orders of magnitude at the highest vacuum conditions. There appears to be an optimal vacuum environment around 1–10 Torr, in which these samples achieved the lowest wear rates of approximately 2.5 × 10 −7  mm 3 /(Nm).
ISSN:1023-8883
1573-2711
1573-2711
DOI:10.1007/s11249-013-0256-1