Combined effect of air-plasma treatment and lubricant filling on the dry sliding wear behavior of hybrid PTFE/Nomex fabric/phenolic composite Guina Ren a,b , Zhaozhu Zhang a,⇑ , Xiaotao Zhu a , Xuehu Men a,⇑ , Wei Jiang a , Weimin Liu a a State Key Laboratory of Solid Lubrication, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianshui Road 18th, Lanzhou 730000, PR China b University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100039, PR China article info Article history: Received 28 March 2014 Received in revised form 12 June 2014 Accepted 14 June 2014 Available online 20 June 2014 Keywords: A. Textile composites B. Friction/wear B. Fiber/matrix bond E. Plasma spraying Lubricant filling abstract Herein, we studied the combined effect of air-plasma treatment and lubricant filling on the dry sliding wear behavior of hybrid PTFE/Nomex fabric/phenolic composite. In this study, hybrid PTFE/Nomex fabric was firstly treated by air-plasma to improve the fabric–resin adhesion and tribological properties of hybrid PTFE/Nomex fabric/phenolic composite. Subsequently, polyfluo wax was employed as lubricant filler to further improve the anti-wear property of air-plasma treated fabric composite. The results of wear tests showed that polyfluo wax filled air-plasma treated fabric composite exhibited the optimal antiwear property and load-carrying capacity, compared to untreated and air-plasma treated fabric composites. The effects of the air-plasma treatment power and polyfluo wax content on the tribological behaviors of the fabric composites were also investigated. Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Among tribological materials investigated, fabric reinforced polymer composites formed a very important class, owing to their extensive applications used as both bearing liners for aircrafts and construction materials for automobiles and pressure vessels [1–3]. With regard to designing fabric composites, hybrid fabrics are being increasingly preferred because of their excellent perfor- mances, such as self-lubricating, low density, high strength and wide performance tailorability [4,5]. For hybrid fabrics applied as tribological materials, low friction fibers and bondable fibers dis- tribute mainly on the working face and the back face, respectively [6]. Hybrid PTFE/Nomex fabric found its wide applications, owning to the outstanding self-lubricating property and high strength of the made polymer composites [7,8]. However, the inertness of Nomex fiber and PTFE fiber surface hinder the tight adhesion between fabric and adhesive resin and thus influences the antiwear performances of the hybrid PTFE/Nomex fabric/ polymer composites [9,10]. Filler filling and surface modification of the fabric are the two universal ways adopted to improve the tribological property of the fabric composites. Nevertheless, incor- poration of lubricant additives in polymer matrix contributes to the friction reduction of polymers at the cost of slight deterioration in the bonding strength between polymer matrix and fabric [11– 13]. It is well-known that surface treatment of fabric by plasma etching endows fibers with high roughness, surface-to-volume ratio and increased activity, which facilitate the adhesion between fabric and polymer matrix through mechanical interlocking and chemical bonding [14–17]. Based on the above respects, it can be reasonably deduced that the combined effect of plasma-treatment and lubricant filling may bring forth considerable improvement on the tribological properties of fabric composites. In this study, air-plasma treatment and lubricant filling (using Polyfluorowax as the lubricant) were combined to improve the hybrid PTFE/Nomex fabric/phenolic composite. Pin-on-disk type wear tests showed that the antiwear property and load-carrying capacity of the fabric composites followed the order of PFW filled air-plasma treated fabric composite > air-plasma-treated fabric composite > untreated fabric composite. We also studied the power of air-plasma treatment and the content of PFW on the tri- bological properties of the hybrid PTFE/Nomex fabric/phenolic composites. This study was hoped to extend the application of fabric composites. 2. Experimental 2.1. Materials The satin weave hybrid PTFE/Nomex fabric (volume fraction of PTFE to Nomex: 1:3) was woven out of PTFE fibers (fineness: 400 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compscitech.2014.06.015 0266-3538/Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. ⇑ Corresponding authors. Tel./fax: +86 931 4968098. E-mail addresses: zzzhang@licp.cas.cn (Z. Zhang), xhmen@licp.cas.cn (X. Men). Composites Science and Technology 100 (2014) 204–211 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Composites Science and Technology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compscitech