Aim of the investigation is to characterize selected PEEK-composites in vacuum environment. Oscillating sliding friction was investigated with a pin-on-disc configuration in high vacuum (10-5 mbar) at room temperature, -40 °C, +100 °C and +160 °C. The contact pressure was 1 MPa and 7 MPa respectively , the maximum sliding velocity 0.1 m/s. Furthermore, tests in ultra high vacuum (10-9 mbar) were carried out with flat and spherical pins at 1 MPa and 60 MPa respectively. Among the tested materials MoS2 filled PEEK shows the best tribological performance in vacuum. Particularly, in the lower temperature range and at higher loads the friction behaviour is improved by MoS2 content.
In the development of hydrogen technology, special attention is paid to the technical problems of
hydrogen storage. One possible way is cryogenic storage in liquid form. Generally cryotechnical
machines need components with interacting surfaces in relative motion such as bearings, seals or
valves, which are subjected to extreme conditions. Materials of such systems have to be resistant to
friction-caused mechanical deformation at the surface, low temperatures and hydrogen environment.
Since materials failure can cause uncontrolled escape of hydrogen, new material requirements are
involved for these tribo-systems, in particular regarding operability and reliability. In the past few
years several projects dealing with the influence of hydrogen on the tribological properties of friction
couples were conducted at the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing, (BAM), Berlin.
This paper reports some investigations carried out with polymer composites. Friction and wear were
measured for continuous sliding and analyses of the worn surfaces were performed after the
experiments. Tests were performed at room temperature in hydrogen as well as in liquid hydrogen.
High-performance fibre-reinforced polymer composites are important construction materials based not only on the specific properties of the reinforcing fibres and the flexible polymer Matrix but also on the compatible properties of the composite interphase. First, oxygen-free (a-CSi:H) and oxygen-binding (a-CSiO:H) plasma nanocoatings of different mechanical and tribological properties were deposited on planar silicon dioxide substrates that closely mimic E-glass. The nanoscratch test was used to characterize the nanocoating adhesion expressed in terms of critical normal load and work of adhesion. Next, the same nanocoatings were deposited on E-glass fibres, which were used as reinforcements in the polyester composite to affect its interphase properties. The shear properties of the polymer composite were characterized by macro- and micromechanical tests, namely a short beam shear test to determine the short-beam strength and a single fibre push-out test to determine the interfacial shear strength. The results of the polymer composites showed a strong correlation between the short-beam strength and the interfacial shear strength, proving that both tests are sensitive to changes in fibre-matrix adhesion due to different surface modifications of glass fibres (GF).
Finally, a strong correlation between the shear properties of the GF/polyester composite and the adhesion of the plasma nanocoating expressed through the work of adhesion was demonstrated.
Thus, increasing the work of adhesion of plasma nanocoatings from 0.8 to 1.5 mJ·m−2 increased the short-beam strength from 23.1 to 45.2 MPa. The results confirmed that the work of adhesion is a more suitable parameter in characterising the level of nanocoating adhesion in comparison with the critical normal load.