The effect of silica and copper nanoparticles in polyimide on the friction and wear of polyethersulfone/polyimide mixture

The synergistic effect of silica (SiO2) and copper (Cu) nanoparticles in polyimide (PI) on the friction interfacial deformation of polyethersulfone/polyimide (PES/PI) blends was studied. Results indicate that the effect of SiO2 and Cu nanoparticles on the tribological performance of PES/PI nanocomposites is quite different from each other. The addition of SiO2 nanoparticles into PI improves the antifriction of PES/PI nanocomposites by 24.4%, but has little effect on the wear resistance. The incorporation of Cu nanoparticles into PI enhances the wear resistance of PES/PI nanocomposites by 55.5%, but has little effect on the antifriction. PES/PI nanocomposites achieve the better comprehensive tribological performance when the content of SiO2 and Cu is 0.8 wt and 0.2 wt%, respectively. The friction interfacial deformation analysis reveals that SiO2 in PI improve the continuity and uniformity of deformation in friction interface and reduce the severe wear of transfer film. Cu nanoparticles in PI improves the continuity but not the ununiformity of deformation. Thus, the abrasive wear of counterpart ball is severe. The synergistic effect of SiO2 and Cu nanoparticles in PI improves the continuity and uniformity of friction interfacial deformation, which contributes to the improvement of friction and wear of PES/PI nanocomposites.