Making Nanoclay-Filled Polytetrafluoroethylene Nanocomposite ForTribological Application

PTFE was invented by PlunKett in 1898 (1). Th ermal stability, high chemical resistance, incubation ability, low friction coefficient and etc make PTFE a promising commercial polymer (2). Using PTFE in most of its application suffers from low wear resistance. Th e extreme ability of nanosized hard particle filler to reduce the wear rate of unfilled PTFE has been identified in the last 20 years. Th is ability is the best way to overcome PTFE poor wear resistance. Different nanosized particles such as Al2O3, SiC, ZnO, ZrO has been applied to the PTFE polymer for increasing its wear resistance (3). Th is article introduces a route to add modified nanoclay to PTFE polymer. Since nanoclay is cheaper than PTFE, using PTFE/Nanoclay nanocomposite can be interesting in all related industries (4).