Tribological and Thermo-Mechanical Properties of TiO Nanodot-Decorated TiC/Epoxy Nanocomposites.

The micromorphology of fillers plays an important role in tribological and mechanical properties of polymer matrices. In this work, a TiO-decorated TiC (TiO/TiC) composite particle with unique micro-nano morphology was engineered to improve the tribological and thermo-mechanical properties of epoxy resin. The TiO/TiC were synthesized by hydrothermal growth of TiO nanodots onto the surface of accordion-like TiC microparticles, and three different decoration degrees (low, medium, high density) of TiO/TiC were prepared by regulating the concentration of TiO precursor solution. Tribological test results indicated that the incorporation of TiO/TiC can effectively improve the wear rate of epoxy resin. Among them, the medium density TiO/TiC/epoxy nanocomposites gained a minimum wear rate. This may be ascribed by the moderate TiO nanodot protuberances on the TiC surface induced a strong mechanical interlock effect between medium-density TiO/TiC and the epoxy matrix, which can bear a higher normal shear stress during sliding friction. The morphologies of worn surfaces and wear debris revealed that the wear form was gradually transformed from fatigue wear in neat epoxy to abrasive wear in TiO/TiC/epoxy nanocomposites. Moreover, the results of thermo-mechanical property indicated that incorporation of TiO/TiC also effectively improved the storage modulus and glass transition temperature of epoxy resin.