Synergistic effect of nano-SiO2 and graphene oxide: hybrid filled thermosetting polyimide nanocomposites with ultralow wear

Abstract

In this work, nano-SiO2, GO and nano-SiO2/GO hybrid reinforced thermosetting polyimide (TPI) composites are synthesized by in situ polymerization method, respectively, and their mechanical performances are simulated using the finite element software to guide the design and manufacture of these tribological coatings. The tribological results show that the nano-SiO2/GO/TPI hybrid composites demonstrate better wear resistant ability, particularly under high load, than TPI composites that are added anyone of the SiO2 or GO nanoparticles alone, and the lowest wear rate of this hybrid composite 4.25 × 10−8 mm3N−1m−1 is obtained at high load, which is more than 1 order of magnitude lower than pure TPI’s 11.48 × 10−7 mm3N−1m−1. Tribological mechanism analysis shows that the improvement of tribological properties is mainly attributed to the synergistic effect of nano-SiO2 and GO in the tribological process. This hybrid nanocomposites can be promising material used as tribo-material in dry sliding condition under high load, and this study demonstrates a way to design and prepare polymer composite coatings with good tribological properties by considering the synergistic effect of nanosize fillers.