Improvement of dry sliding tribological properties of polyamide 6 using diamond nanoparticles

- The PA6/ND composites were prepared using melt mixing method.
- Pin-on-disc wear tests were conducted to investigate the role of ND particles.
- Transfer layer resulted from drawn up nanoparticles enhanced the wear performance.
- More effective transfer layer was formed by amino modified ND.
- Incorporation of NDs changed the wear mechanism from adhesive to abrasive.

In the present study, it was revealed that incorporation of nanodiamond containing carboxylic group (ND-COOH) decreased considerably specific wear rate (∼30%) and COF (∼60%) of polyamide 6 (PA6) at 1 wt% loading. Compared with ND-COOH, amino functionalized ND enhanced further wear performance of PA6 which was associated with its finer dispersion as well as greater influence on the improvement of mechanical properties, toughness and crystallinity of PA6. Surface temperature increment caused by frictional heat was in close agreement with COF and wear characteristics of the samples. Optical microscopy images revealed that NDs promote the abrasive wear mechanism in PA6/ND composites.

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