Investigation about tribological behavior of ABS and PC-ABS polymers coated with graphene

Graphene is an amazing material that finds application in many fields. In particular, graphene can be used as anti-friction material. Even if graphene has been already tested as lubricants additive, the use as friction reduction coating is not widely investigated. In this paper, the tribological performance of graphene-coated polymers has been investigated. In particular ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene) and PC-ABS (PolyCarbonate- Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene) have been investigated as polymers widely used in industrial field. Samples have been coated with graphene by means of a dedicated procedure. Tribological performance has been evaluated by ball on disk tests, taking into consideration different travelled distances in order to evaluate also the coating wear strength. Results show that graphene coat may reduce coefficient of friction of the tested materials although the wear strength of the coating is quite weak.