A comparative study on dry‐sliding wear behavior of graphene oxide/epoxy nanocomposites functionalized by amino‐ and epoxy‐silane coupling agents

Abstract To enhance the interfacial bonding between the graphene oxide nanoplatelets (GONs) and epoxy (EP) matrix, two different types of silane coupling agents (amino‐ and EP‐silane) were applied to the GONs‐EP nanocomposites. The effects of the silane compound type and silanized GON loading (0.1–0.5 wt% at an interval of 0.2) on the dry‐sliding wear response of GONs‐EP nanocomposites were then studied. The wear tests were conducted under 20 N load and 1000 m sliding distance. The results showed that the wear properties were remarkably improved by the incorporation of silanized GONs to the matrix, and the best wear behavior was obtained at 0.3 wt% silanized GONs. Most importantly, the amino‐silane coupling agent was shown to be more effective in enhancing the wear resistance of the GONs‐EP nanocomposites. After the wear tests, the composite surfaces were studied by scanning electron microscopy to find the predominant mechanisms.