Influence of air-plasma treatment and hexagonal boron nitride as filler on the high temperature tribological behaviors of hybrid PTFE/Nomex fabric/phenolic composite

• Air-plasma was employed to treat the hybrid PTFE/Nomex fabric.
• h-BN incorporated into hybrid PTFE/Nomex fabric composite to improve it high-temperature tribological properties.
• To investigate the surface morphology and active of test specimens with SEM, FTIR and XPS.

In this work, we investigated the effect of air-plasma treatment on the bonding strength of hybrid PTFE/Nomex fabric and mechanical strength of PTFE and Nomex fibers. Besides, we employed hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) as high-temperature lubricant and incorporated it into the hybrid fabric/phenolic composite. The high-temperature tribological performances of the fabric composite were evaluated on a pin-on-disk tribometer. The results indicated that the air-plasma treated hybrid PTFE/Nomex fabric composites filled with 6 wt% h-BN exhibited outstanding tribological properties. The results of the morphology study of the fabric composites support the results of the wear test and the corresponding wear mechanisms of the composites were discussed based on the characterizations.

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