The effect of silane coupling agent on the sliding wear behavior of nanometer ZrO2/bismaleimide composites

The polymer composites filled with nanoparticles have good friction and wear properties and widely used in many fields. The performances of nanocomposites are influenced extensively by the nanoparticles morphology, size, volume fraction and dispersion. Nanometer ZrO2 particles have good properties, lower prices and shows good foreground in resist-materials of polymer composites. In this paper, the nanometer ZrO2 particles are treated by silane coupling agent of N-(2-aminoethyl)-γ-aminopropylmethyl dimethoxy silane. The effect of nanometer ZrO2 content and silane coupling agent on the friction and wear properties of BMI copmposites filled with nanometer ZrO2 are investigated. The composites filled with untreated ZrO2 and treated ZrO2 are prepared by the same way of mechanical high shear dispersion process and casting method. The sliding wear performance of the nanocomposites is studied on an M-200 friction and wear tester. The experimental results indicate that the frictional coefficient and the wear rate of the composites can be reduced by filled with nanometer ZrO2. The composites containing treated nanometer ZrO2 have the better tribological performance than that containing untreated nanometer ZrO2. The results are explained from the SEM morphologies of the worn surface of matrix resin and the composites containing nanometer ZrO2 and the TEM photographs of the nanometer ZrO2 dispersion in the matrix.