Thermal, frictional and wear behavior of carbon nanofiber/poly(methyl methacrylate) composites

In this work, the effect of carbon nanofiber (CNF) on thermal properties, and friction and wear behavior of CNF/PMMA composites were examined. While thermal properties of the composites were investigated with differential scanning calorimetry, thermogravimetric analyzer, and dynamic mechanical analyzer, friction and wear behaviors were examined using a friction and wear tester. The glass transition temperature (T_g), integral procedural decomposition temperature (IPDT), storage modulus (E′), and tan δ appeared at higher temperatures with increasing CNF content, which were probably attributed to the presence of strong interactions between the carbonaceous fillers and the PMMA resins matrix. The wear loss in the composites decreased at 0.1 wt% CNF and then increased with 5-10 wt% CNF content. This was due to the existence of large aspect ratio CNF in PMMA, which led to an alignment of PMMA chains and an increase of mechanical interlocking, resulting in the formation of crosslinked structures between CNF and PMMA in the composite.