The synergistic effect of SiC/R-GO composite on mechanical and tribological properties of thermosetting polyimide

The effective means to solve material wear is to develop self-lubricating composite materials with excellent tribological, thermal, and mechanical properties. Herein, the composites of reduced graphene oxide (r-GO) nanosheet decorated with Silicon Carbide (SiC) were facilely prepared with employing a silane coupling agent, and the corresponding r-GO/SiC/thermosetting polyimide (r-GO/SiC/TPI) nanocomposite films were obtained by in situ polymerization method. The mechanical, tribological, and thermal properties of these nanocomposite films were investigated. When the content of r-GO/SiC was at 1.0 wt%, the compression strength and compression modulus of the composite increased by 37.7% and 47.3%, respectively, which were much higher than that of TPI composites addition of r-GO or SiC alone. Furthermore, r-GO/SiC/TPI composites also exhibited the lowest wear rate and friction coefficient in these reinforced TPI nanocomposites. When the content of r-GO/SiC was 0.8 wt%, particularly, the friction coefficient and wear rate of r-GO/SiC/TPI decreased by 22.8% and 79.8% compared to pure TPI, respectively. Additionally, trace amount r-GO/SiC hybrids also significantly enhance the thermal stability of TPI matrix. Compared to the polyimide composites reinforced by common nano-scale inorganic fillers, the outstanding mechanical and tribological properties of this r-GO/SiC/PI composites could be attributed to the ball on plane structure of GO/SiC, which lead to crack reflection, strength increment. These r-GO/SiC/TPI composites demonstrate the promising potential to be used as high-performance tribological materials in industry applications.