Abstract
Communication: To develop wear resistant nanocomposite coating materials, the authors of the present work treated nanosilica first by introducing a certain amount of grafting polymers onto the particles in terms of an irradiation technique. Through irradiation grafting, the nanoparticle agglomerates turn into a nanocomposite microstructure. (comprised of the nanoparticles and the grafted, homopolymerized secondary polymer), which in turn built up a strong interfacial interaction with the surrounding epoxy matrix through chain entanglement and chemical bonding during the subsequent mixing and consolidation. The experimental results indicated that the addition of the grafted nanosilica into epoxy significantly reduced wear rate and frictional coefficient of the matrix at low filter loading. Compared with the cases of microsized silica and untreated nanosilica, the employment of grafted nanosilica provided composites with much higher tribological performance enhancement efficiency. Unlike the approaches for manufacturing of other types of nanocomposites, the current method is characterized by many advantages, such as simple, low cost, easy to be controlled, and broader applicability.