Fabrication of polyphenylene sulfide composites with integrated mechanical and tribological properties by synchronically adding irradiation-treated PTFE powders and short carbon fibers

In this work, irradiation-treated polytetrafluoroethylene (i-PTFE) powders and short carbon fibers (SCFs) were synchronically incorporated to prepare polyphenylene sulfide (PPS)-based composites with integrated tribological and mechanical properties. The results revealed that the combined addition of i-PTFE powders and SCFs favored the formation of transfer film on the surface of friction pair and lubricating film on the surface of sample block, which was crucial to improving the tribological properties. In addition, the thermal conductivity of PPS-based composites was greatly enhanced with the addition of SCFs, which was advantageous to the dissipation of friction heat at the sliding interface. The mechanical properties, including tensile and flexural properties as well as surface hardness of PPS/i-PTFE/SCF composites were greatly enhanced with ≥ 10 wt% SCFs when compared with those of pure PPS and PPS/i-PTFE blends, which was beneficial to withstand the continuous shearing action of friction pair. As a result, the average friction coefficient and specific wear rate of PPS/i-PTFE 24 wt%/SCFs 20 wt% composites reached 0.160 and 3.63 × 10−6 mm3/Nm, which were 71.4% and 99.0% lower than those of pure PPS. This work demonstrated that thermoplastic engineering composites with integrated mechanical and tribological properties can be prepared by synchronically adding i-PTFE and SCFs which show promising applications in the fields of automotive, aviation and aeronautics, etc.