Enhanced wear resistance of ultra‐high molecular weight polyethylene fibers by modified‐graphite oxide

Abstract

A simple and feasible method to enhance the wear resistance of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) fibers was reported. The graphite oxide (GO) prepared using improved Hummer's method was surface modified with hexadecylamine to improve its compatibility with UHMWPE. Combined with well-dispersion of modified-GO (m-GO) in dichloromethane and the fact that the viscosity of UHMWPE suspension can be decreased by dichloromethane, the well dispersed m-GO/dichloromethane was added into UHMWPE suspension to improve m-GO dispersion in UHMWPE fibers. Finally, UHMWPE fibers with different m-GO concentration were prepared using gel spinning technology. The effect of m-GO concentration on the structure and properties of modified UHMWPE fibers were investigated. The results indicated that the melting temperature and crystallinity of m-GO modified UHMWPE fibers increased with increasing of m-GO concentration, while the fiber's crystal sizes and orientation increased, thus the tensile strength of m-GO modified UHMWPE fibers remained almost undamaged. The introduction of m-GO is beneficial to the formation of smooth transfer film on fiber's surface, which enhanced the self-lubrication of UHMWPE fibers. Compared with pure UHMWPE fiber, the UHMWPE fiber containing 1.5 wt% m-GO had enhanced wear resistance by 55.4% and still maintained high tensile strength of 29.98 cN dtex −1 .

Crystallization and Melting Behavior of UHMWPE Composites Filled by Different Carbon Materials

“…A lot of investigation indicated that the addition of filler increases the crystallization temperature of polymers, attributed to the heterogeneous nucleation of filler [13,14,42,43]. The interfacial interaction between filler and polymer makes nucleation easier, therefore polymer crystalized at a higher temperature.…”

“…In order to improve the properties of UHMWPE, UHMWPE composites filled by carbon fibers (CF) [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13], carbon nanotube (CNT) [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32], and graphene oxide (GO) [33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43] were reported. Despite the excellent performance of these nanocomposites, the high cost of these fillers restricted the widely use of the UHMWPE composites.…”

Regulating the dissolving system of ultra‐high molecular weight polyethylene to enhance the high‐strength and high‐modulus properties of resultant fibers

“…[1][2][3] UHMWPE fibers are of great importance to mankind because of their increasing demand in fields ranging from civil materials to basic materials for military aviation depending on their simple structure, low density, outstanding tensile property, excellent wear resistance and other properties. [4][5][6][7][8] The methods for preparing UHMWPE fibers mainly include solid-phase extrusion method, 9,10 surface crystal growth method, 11 plasticized melt-spinning method 12,13 and gelspinning-hot-drawing method 14,15 and so forth. But compared with other preparation methods, the gel-spinninghot-drawing method has many merits, such as excellent properties of prepared fibers, easy control of spinning process and so on.…”

Abrasion‐resistance of UHMWPE reinforced by illite‐smectite interstratified clay and low dose radiation

“…[6,7] It is easier for nanofillers to combine with UHMWPE and exhibit better wear-resistance. [8][9][10] In fact, the tribological properties of UHMWPE matrix had been improved by the nanofillers such as CuO, graphene oxide, TiO 2 and illite-smectite interstratified clay (ISIC) at very low content. [8][9][10][11][12] The ISIC powders have the dual properties of montmorillonite and illite.…”

“…[8][9][10] In fact, the tribological properties of UHMWPE matrix had been improved by the nanofillers such as CuO, graphene oxide, TiO 2 and illite-smectite interstratified clay (ISIC) at very low content. [8][9][10][11][12] The ISIC powders have the dual properties of montmorillonite and illite. [13] It can be used in the fields of composites, selfhealing materials, and adsorption materials.…”