Influence of carbon fiber content on bio-tribological performances of high-density polyethylene

The present study aims to investigate the effect of short carbon fiber (SCFs) content on wear performance of high-density polyethylene (HDPE). SCFs reinforced composites with different weight fractions (5 wt%, 10 wt%, 15 wt% and 20 wt%) were fabricated by melt compounding and compression molding. To evaluate bio- tribological performance of the samples, three different loads (20 N, 40 N and 60 N) were applied to simulate body fluid (SBF) environment against stainless steel counterface. The scanning electron microscope was used to investigate the morphology of composite granules and worn surfaces of samples. Also, the hardness test was conducted for all samples. The results show that the hardness of high-density polyethylene increases significantly depending on the short carbon fiber content. 20 wt% SCFs reinforced composite exhibited the highest hardness, which is 34% improvement compared to the pure HDPE. However, the same trend was not observed for wear resistance of composites. Composites containing 10 wt% SCFs showed best wear performance in SBF fluid conditions.