Effects of electron beam irradiation on tribological and physico-chemical properties of Polyoxymethylene copolymer (POM-C)

Polyoxymethylene copolymer (POM-C) is an attractive and widely used engineering thermoplastic across many industrial sectors owing to outstanding physical, mechanical, self-lubricating and chemical properties. In this research work, the POM-C blocks were irradiated with 1 MeV electron beam energy in five doses (100, 200, 300, 500 and 700 kGy) in vacuum condition at room temperature. The tribological and physico-chemical properties of electron beam irradiated POM-C blocks have been analyzed using pin on disk tribometer, Raman spectroscopy, FTIR-ATR, gel content analysis, SEM-EDS (scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive spectroscopy), surface profiler and contact angle analyzer. Electron beam irradiation at a dose of 100 kGy resulted in decrease of the friction coefficient of POM-C block due to well suited carbonization, cross-linking, free radicals formation and partial physical modification. It also showed the lowest surface roughness and highest water contact angle among all unirradiated and irradiated POM-C blocks. The irradiation dose at 200 kGy resulted in increase of friction coefficient due to less effective cross-linking, but the irradiation doses at 300, 500 and 700 kGy resulted in increase of the friction coefficient as compared to unirradiated POM-C block due to severe chain scission, chemical and physical structural degradation. The degree of improvement for tribological attribute relies on the electron beam surface dose delivered (energy and dose rate).