Polyamide 6/carbon black/molybdenum disulphide composites: Friction, wear and morphological characteristics

The objective of this research work is to evaluate the tribological and physico-mechanical properties of molybdenum disulphide (MoS2) loaded polyamide 6 composites in the presence of carbon black (CB). Polyamide 6 containing 1 wt% of carbon black powder was compounded and extruded with varying amounts viz., 0.5, 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 wa, MoS2 in a co-rotating twin screw extruder. The fabricated polyamide 6 composites have been evaluated for tribological properties such as wear loss, specific wear rate and coefficient of friction, and physico-mechanical properties such as water uptake, density, surface hardness, tensile properties and impact strength. The effect of molybdenum disulphide content, abrading loads, sliding velocities and sliding distances on wear characteristics of the polyamide 6/CB/MoS2 composites were evaluated using a pin-on-disc equipment. It was found that the introduction of MoS2 has significantly reduced the, wear loss and friction behavior of pristine polyamide 6. Worn surfaces were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to have better insight on the wear mechanism. Furthermore the polyamide 6 composites showed significant improvement in tensile behavior. Additionally, the thermal characteristics of the composites also have been studied by using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA). (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.