Investigating Mechanical, Viscoelastic, and Tribological Properties of PA6/HDPE + GO Polymer Blend Nanocomposites

We examined the mechanical, viscoelastic, and tribological properties of PA6/HDPE + GO polymer blend nanocomposites produced by a combination of direct melt compounding and wet phase inversion. The thermal stabilities of the polymer blend nanocomposites were determined by DSC, TGA and LFA. The increase in GO content had a negligible impact on the melting temperatures and decomposition temperatures. The load carrying capacity was investigated by tensile, bending, and impact tests. Increasing the GO content increased the tensile and flexural properties and decreased the impact properties compared with standard PA6/HDPE. The viscoelastic characteristics were examined using DMA. With the increase in GO content, the storage modulus increased, tan δ decreased, and T_g increased by constraining the matrix through the homogenous distribution and incorporation of GO in the PA6/HDPE matrix. A notable reduction in the friction coefficient was achieved with increasing GO weight fraction, and the wear rates at all sliding distances were lower than those of PA6/HDPE. As the GO weight fraction increased, the friction temperatures decreased because the increased thermal conductivity quickly dissipated the heat generated by the friction. The PA6/HDPE + GO polymer blend nanocomposites formed a continuous and smooth transfer film on the steel counterfaces as the GO content increased.