(651g) Analysis of Deformation Wear in Polymer Coatings

Most common types of wear of polymers are abrasion, adhesion, and fatigue. Addition of inorganic hard material especially nano-filler (silica, alumina, graphite) in a polymer coating for electronic devices can result in improving its abrasion resistance, and in wear rate of glassy polymer coatings(1,2). Parameters found to be significant in the wear is a ratio of hardness to elastic modulus (related to the elastic strain to failure) and H3/E*2(related to the resistance to plastic deformation) are more important than hardness alone in determining the wear resistance of a material. Effective Young's modulus E* is measured by instrumental nano-indentation and is defined as E*=E/(1â??ν2), where ν is the Poisson's ratio of the material. In digital printers, photoreceptor is a central device which is subjected to abrasion during blade and brush cleaning of the photoreceptor after image transfer. The abrasion of the top layer is found to be caused by embrittlement of the top layer. Bulk and surface properties were measured by preparing materials by spin coating process. Hysitron was used for measuring surface properties such as indentation Youngâ??s modulus and hardness.. Addition of nano-filler silica in the polymer coatings either in polycarbonate or polyester increased strain to break increases hardness to elastic modulus ratio decreasing coating wear. Compared to polycarbonate, polyester showed higher strain to break when internal plasticizer (a diamine) was added. Addition of nano-filler silica resulted in higher hardness to modulus ratio consistent with previous studies on other materials.