Effects of addition of thermoplastic elastomers on tribological anti mechanical properties of vapor grown carbon fiber filled polybutylene terephthalate composites

Abstract

There has been a great discussion on tribomaterials of polymeric nanocomposites in recent years. However. little study has been done to develop tribomaterials suitable for micro size devices with sufficient balances between tribological and mechanical properties. A study was conducted to develop new tribomaterials with high performance for micro mechanic and electric devices, made by blending vapor grown carbon fiber filled polybutylene terephthalate with various functionalized thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) based on styrene butadene elastomer. The tribological and mechanical properties of these injection-molded polymer blends were examined. Three types of TPE based on styrene butadiene elastomer were used. These ternary nanocomposites were extruded by a twin screw extruder and injection-molded. Their tensile, impact, and tribological properties using ring on plate typed sliding wear tester were evaluated and discussed. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 2009 World Tribology Congress (Kyoto, Japan 9/6-11/2009).