High thermal stability and wear resistance of porous thermosetting heterocyclic polyimide impregnated with silicone oil

Porous polyimide materials have been widely used to make bearing retainers in aerospace industry and military system owing to its excellent oil storage and lubrication performances. Poor high-temperature resistance, however, is still one of key issues restricting the lifetime and operating precision of bearing. Here, porous thermosetting benzimidazole-containing aromatic polyimide (PIB) materials were fabricated for the first time. The glass transition temperature of PIB-2 (one of the PIB materials fabricated in current paper) was 336 °C. Meanwhile, the coefficient of friction and wear rate of PIB-2 impregnated with phenyl silicone oil sliding against GCr15 steel at 300 °C were 0.038 and 1.41 × 10−6 mm3N−1m−1. Therefore, the porous thermosetting PIB materials are potential candidates to make high-temperature bearing retainers with excellent wear resistance.