Suppression of wear in graphene polymer composites

Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) is one of the most widely used solid lubricants but suffers from a high wear rate which limits its applications. Here we report four orders of magnitude reduction in the steady state wear rate of PTFE due to graphene additives. The wear rate of unfilled PTFE was measured to be ∼0.4 × 10−3 mm3/N m which is reduced to ∼10−7 mm3/N m by the incorporation of 10 wt% of graphene platelets. We also performed a head-to-head comparison of wear rate with graphene and micro-graphite fillers at the same weight fractions. In general, we find that graphene fillers gave 10–30 times lower wear rates than micro-graphite at the same loading fraction. Scanning electron microscopy analysis indicated noticeably smaller wear debris size in the case of graphene/PTFE composites indicating that graphene additives are highly effective in regulating debris formation in PTFE leading to reduced wear.