Enhancing tribo-mechanical properties and thermal stability of nylon 6 by hexagonal boron nitride fillers

Abstract

Mechanical and tribological properties of nylon 6 and nylon 6/h-BN composites were investigated in this paper. Tensile, hardness, and impact tests were carried out for mechanical properties, while wear tests on pin-on-disc were carried out for tribological properties identification. Abrasion resistance tests were carried out on the TABER apparatus to analyze the abrasive wear of materials. SEM, XRD, and TGA were used to characterize the materials and to understand the distinctive features of nylon 6 and nylon 6/h-BN composites. Experimental results show that the mechanical properties and tribological behavior of nylon 6 got enhanced by the h-BN fillers. Tensile strength and modulus of elasticity were enhanced by 15.2% and 64.5%, respectively, while hardness and impact strength were enhanced by 3.45% and 6%, respectively. COF and wear rate of composites decreased up to 4 wt% filler reinforcement due to smooth transfer film formation. Coefficient of friction (COF) and wear resistance were improved by 10–15% and 8–10%, respectively, at various testing conditions. h-BN reinforcement in the matrix resulted in more weight loss due to abrasion and it reduced the abrasion resistance of nylon 6 by 5.5 times. Thermal stability was slightly increased, and crystallinity was little affected by the h-BN fillers.

Tensile and flexural properties of MWCNT-COOH and hBN integrated polyamide 66/short glass fiber composites

“…Similiarly, the study of Muralidhara et al [67] revealed that presence of hBN results in increment in mechanical properties of CF filled epoxy. Moreover, Randhawa and Patel [68] reported that tensile strength and modulus of PA 6 increased by 15.2% and 64.5%, respectively, after the addition of 8 wt.% hBN.…”

Influence of h-BN fillers on mechanical and tribological properties of PP/PA6 blend

“…PP/ PA6 and PP/PA6/h-BN was found quite higher compared to pure PP because of the presence of hard PA6 material. While comparing Batch B and Batch C, it was found that Batch C was having lower COF compared to Batch B owing to the formation of the self-lubricating film which reduced (Yi and Yan, 2006;Randhawa and Patel, 2020a, 2020b, 2020c the COF of composite material compared to the PP/PA6 blend as shown in Figure 10.…”

“…Carbon nanotubes (CNT) were found effective in improving COF and wear resistance of the PP/CNT composite (Gandhi et al, 2013) compared to pure PP. The addition of 2 wt.% boric anhydride to the PA6 matrix (Randhawa and Patel, 2020a, 2020b, 2020c enhanced the tensile strength and abrasion resistance of the PA6/boric anhydride composite, and the hardness was found gradually enhanced as the boric anhydride filler percent increase in the PA6 matrix. The 2 wt.% titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) fillers provided the best tribological performance (Guglani and Gupta, 2018) of PA66/TiO 2 composite.…”

“…The strength, fracture toughness and tribological properties of ceramics (Lee, 2016) can also be improved with the help of BN. It also proved itself as a good solid lubricant to the polymeric matrices by reducing friction and wear rates of polymers (Mistry and Randhawa, 2020;Randhawa and Patel, 2020a, 2020b, 2020c rubbing with steel disc.…”

The effect of environmental humidity/water absorption on tribo-mechanical performance of polymers and polymer composites – a review

“…Boron based compounds, i.e. diboron trioxide (Randhawa and Patel, 2020a, 2020b, 2021a and hexagonal boron nitride (Randhawa and Patel, 2020a, 2020b, 2021a, 2020bMistry and Randhawa, 2020;Möller et al, 2002;Martin et al, 1992;Vyas and Randhawa, 2021) are having excellent solid lubricant properties, while boron carbide (Cuong et al, 2006;Erdemir et al, 1996) is an excellent wear-resistant material. The tribo-oxidation of hexagonal boron nitride in the presence of water leads to the formation of boron oxide.…”