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Friction 2023, 11(11): 2091-2106 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40544-022-0722-6
Research Article | Open Access | Issue | Published: 21 March 2023

Synergistically assembled RGO/Si3N4 whiskers hybrid aerogels to endow epoxy composites with excellent thermal and tribological performance

Show Author's Information Yongjun ZHOU1,  Yuanya ZHANG1,  Meng LIU2,3,  Yanling WANG2,3,  Junya YUAN2( ),  Xuehu MEN1( )
School of Materials and Energy, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
State Key Laboratory of Solid Lubrication, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China
Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
Keywords:
tribological properties, thermal properties, wear mechanism, synergistic effect, three-dimensional (3D) hybrid structure, reduced graphene oxide (RGO)/Si3N4 hybrid aerogel
Cite this article:
ZHOU Y, ZHANG Y, LIU M, et al. Synergistically assembled RGO/Si3N4 whiskers hybrid aerogels to endow epoxy composites with excellent thermal and tribological performance. Friction, 2023, 11(11): 2091-2106. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40544-022-0722-6
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Epoxy resin (EP) composites with satisfactory thermal and tribological performance are highly required for engineering moving components. However, the simple addition of fillers leaded to the serious filler agglomeration and limited promotion in tribological properties. In this work, we constructed a new kind of three-dimensional (3D) reduced graphene oxide (RGO)/Si3N4 hybrid aerogel for EP composites, which was prepared by a facile hydrothermal self-assembly method followed by freeze-drying technique. As a result, the dispersibility of Si3N4 whiskers was greatly improved through wrapping of polydopamine–polyethyleneimine copolymer (PDA–PEI) copolymer and physical spacing of 3D skeleton. Furthermore, benefiting from the synergistic effect of RGO and Si3N4@PDA–PEI in the thermal network, the thermal conductivity of RGO/Si3N4 hybrid aerogel (GSiA)–EP increased by 45.4% compared to that of the neat EP. In addition, the friction coefficient and wear rate of GSiA–EP decreased by 83.7% and 35.8%, respectively. This work is significant for opening a tribological performance enhancement strategy though constructing 3D hybrid architecture.


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Electronic supplementary material
About this article

Synergistically assembled RGO/Si3N4 whiskers hybrid aerogels to endow epoxy composites with excellent thermal and tribological performance

Show Author's information Yongjun ZHOU1, Yuanya ZHANG1, Meng LIU2,3, Yanling WANG2,3, Junya YUAN2( ), Xuehu MEN1( )
School of Materials and Energy, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
State Key Laboratory of Solid Lubrication, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China
Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China

Abstract

Epoxy resin (EP) composites with satisfactory thermal and tribological performance are highly required for engineering moving components. However, the simple addition of fillers leaded to the serious filler agglomeration and limited promotion in tribological properties. In this work, we constructed a new kind of three-dimensional (3D) reduced graphene oxide (RGO)/Si3N4 hybrid aerogel for EP composites, which was prepared by a facile hydrothermal self-assembly method followed by freeze-drying technique. As a result, the dispersibility of Si3N4 whiskers was greatly improved through wrapping of polydopamine–polyethyleneimine copolymer (PDA–PEI) copolymer and physical spacing of 3D skeleton. Furthermore, benefiting from the synergistic effect of RGO and Si3N4@PDA–PEI in the thermal network, the thermal conductivity of RGO/Si3N4 hybrid aerogel (GSiA)–EP increased by 45.4% compared to that of the neat EP. In addition, the friction coefficient and wear rate of GSiA–EP decreased by 83.7% and 35.8%, respectively. This work is significant for opening a tribological performance enhancement strategy though constructing 3D hybrid architecture.

Keywords: tribological properties, thermal properties, wear mechanism, synergistic effect, three-dimensional (3D) hybrid structure, reduced graphene oxide (RGO)/Si3N4 hybrid aerogel

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Received: 09 March 2022
Revised: 17 May 2022
Accepted: 09 November 2022
Published: 21 March 2023
Issue date: November 2023

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© The author(s) 2022.

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 52005487) and Natural Science Foundation of Gansu Province (Grant No. 20JR10RA057).

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