The wear-resistance of composite depending on the interfacial interaction between thermoplastic polyurethane and fluorinated UHMWPE particles with or without oxygen

Abstract Ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) particle surface modified by direct fluorination was used as the wear-resistant filler incorporated into thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) to prepare the high wear-resistant composite. In this study, UHMWPE particles were surface modified by direct fluorination using fluorine–nitrogen or fluorine–oxygen–nitrogen reactive fluoride mixture. The results of ATR-FTIR and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy indicate that a large number of polar groups are covalently bonded on the surface of UHMWPE particles after direct fluorination. Larger quantities of oxygen-containing groups on the surface layer are introduced by fluorine–oxygen–nitrogen modified process. Two kinds of surface modified UHMWPE particles were solution blended with one polyester-type TPU. The scanning electron microscope and mechanical properties of composites indicate that the interfacial interaction between the two components is dependent on the chemical structure of the fluorinated surface layer on the particles. The composite with oxy-fluorine-functionalized UHMWPE particles obtains more excellent tribological performance enhancement with significant decrease in wear loss of about 62.7% reduction in compared with virgin TPU. This composite exhibits stronger interfacial adhesion than that with UHMWPE particles only modified by fluorine–nitrogen due to more chemical bonding interaction forming between the two polymer component interfaces.