Dry Sliding Wear Behaviour of Epoxyreinforced with nanoZrO2 Particles

A systematic study has been conducted to investigate the matrix properties by introducing nanosize ZrO2 (60-100 nm, 0.5–10 wt.%) fillers into an epoxy resin. High shear mixing process was employed to disperse the particles into the resin. The experimental results indicated that the frictional coefficient and wear rate of epoxy can be reduced at rather low concentration of nano-ZrO2. The lowest specific wear rate 0.1 x 10-4 mm3/Nm is observed for the composites with 0.5 wt.% which is decreased by 95% as compared to the value of unfilled epoxy. Although the incorporation of nano-ZrO2 particles leads to increased flexural modulus and flexural strength of epoxy, the wear performance of the composites does not correlate with these static mechanical properties. In contrast, there is a positive correlation between wear resistance and impact strength (i.e. increase in impact strength correlates with a decrease in specific wear rate).