Fundamental Study of Wear in Graphene Nanocomposites

这项资助的目的是阐明在石墨烯-聚合物复合材料中抑制磨损的基本机制。我们在这个项目中的目标是深入了解石墨烯添加剂在聚合物中抗磨损的增强能力。从磨损抑制的角度来看，石墨烯很有趣，因为它具有几微米量级的面内薄片尺寸和纳米级的薄片厚度。石墨烯薄片的微尺度尺寸使其能够有效地干扰聚合物中碎片的产生过程，而纳米级厚度、低密度和平面片状几何结构的石墨烯使巨大的界面接触面积与基质中的石墨烯薄片数量密度非常大。此外，石墨烯片层中单个石墨烯平面的滑动有望增强石墨烯的润滑效果，降低摩擦水平以及材料的磨损率。如果成功，所提出的工作将为合理设计耐磨石墨烯聚合物复合材料提供必要的基础知识。石墨烯填料具有优异的磨损抑制能力，加上潜在的低生产成本，使这项技术在工业应用中非常有前途。这种可减少摩擦和磨损的复合材料在航空航天、医疗、化工、汽车和电子工业中有广泛的应用。外展活动包括向纽约州新视野高中项目的学生进行示威。这将有助于普及科学，并吸引代表人数不足的群体投身科学和工程领域。

The objective of this grant is to elucidate the fundamental mechanisms that are responsible for the suppression of wear in graphene-polymer composites. Our goal in this project is to develop an in-depth understanding of the enhanced ability of graphene additives to resist wear in polymers. Graphene is interesting from the point of view of wear suppression since it has in-plane sheet dimensions of the order of several microns coupled with nanometer scale sheet thickness. The microscale dimensions of the graphene sheets enables it to effectively interfere with debris generation processes in polymers, while the nanometer scale thickness, low density and planer sheet geometry of graphene enables a huge interfacial contact area with very large number density of graphene platelets in the matrix. Moreover, the sliding of individual graphene planes within graphene platelets is expected to enhance the lubrication effect and reduce the friction levels in addition to the material wear rates.If successful, the proposed work will provide the fundamental understanding necessary to enable the rational design of wear-resistant graphene polymer composites. The excellent wear suppression ability of graphene fillers coupled with their potentially low production cost makes this technology very promising for industrial applications. Such composites offering reduced friction and wear have a wide range of applications in the aerospace, medical, chemical, automotive and electronics industries. Outreach activities include demonstrations to students from New York State's New Visions high school program. This will help to popularize science and to attract underrepresented groups to careers in science and engineering.