Design and development of advanced polymer composites as high performance tribo-materials based on blends of PEK and ABPBI

Polybenzimidazole (PBI) is a specialty polymer with highest thermal stability. However, its potential to develop composites has not yet been explored because of problems associated with processing. To overcome this problem, blend of Polyetherketone (PEK) and PBI was developed for the first time, and its mechanical and tribological properties were investigated. Further, a systematic series of composites containing solid lubricants (SLs), short fibers of glass and carbon was developed and its physical, mechanical, thermal and tribological properties were investigated. The composites with either SLs or fibers did not show good tribo-potential. However, when these were used together, performance was significantly better. When compared to the commercial composite based on PBI-PEEK blend and with similar composition, the new composites demonstrated excellent tribo-potential with very low friction coefficient (µ)≈0.05 and specific wear rate (K0)≈1×10−16 m3/N m along with very high PVsafe-limit value≈63 MPa m/s.