Wear 258 (2005) 141148

Tribological properties of epoxy nanocomposites

I. Enhancement of the wear resistance by nano-TiO2 particles
L. Chang, Z. Zhang , C. Breidt, K. Friedrich
Institute for Composite Materials, University of Kaiserslautern, Erwin Schrodinger Str. 58, 67663 Kaiserslautern, Germany
Received 22 December 2003

Abstract
The tribological performances of epoxy-based composites, filled with short carbon fibre, graphite, PTFE and nano-TiO2 in different
proportions and combinations, were investigated. The patterns of frictional coefficient, wear resistance and contact temperature were examined
by a pin-on-disc apparatus in a dry sliding condition under different contact pressures and sliding velocities. The experimental results
indicated that the addition of nano-TiO2 could apparently reduce the frictional coefficient, and consequently reduce the contact temperature
of fibre-reinforced epoxy composites. As a result, the wear resistance of the composites was significantly enhanced, especially at extreme
wear conditions, i.e. high contact pressures and sliding velocities. Compared to traditional fillers, epoxy nanocomposites attained generally
improved both wear resistance and load-carrying capacity.
2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Epoxy composite; Short carbon fibre; Nano-TiO2 ; Solid lubricants; Wear rate; Frictional coefficient

1. Introduction
In order to improve the wear resistance of polymers, fibre reinforcements and solid lubricants were frequently applied. It was found that short fibre reinforcements, e.g. carbon,
glass and steel fibres, could generally improve the mechanical
properties of the composites and result in an enhanced wear
resistance [14]. Solid lubricants, e.g. graphite and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), were proved to be very helpful in
developing a transfer film between the two counterparts and
normally could drastically reduce the wear rate of the composites [57]. However, tribological properties are generally
not real material parameters, but depend on the system in
which these materials have to function [811]. Nevertheless,
when the materials are subjected to various sliding conditions
in practice, the load-carrying capacity and wear resistance
determine its tolerability in applications. In fact, most of the
applications of polymers are limited to low temperatures, and
consequently low speeds and loads [10]. Therefore, a compre

Corresponding author. Tel.: +49 631 2017213; fax: +49 631 2017196.
E-mail address: zhong.zhang@ivw.uni-kl.de (Z. Zhang).

0043-1648/$ see front matter 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.wear.2004.09.005

hensive investigation and evaluation of the tribological characteristics of composites under various sliding conditions are
needed.
To evaluate the wear behaviours of materials under different wear conditions, the time-related depth wear rate, Wt ,
was frequently applied,
Wt = k pv =

h
(m/s)
t

(1)

in which k* is called wear factor, p the normal pressure, v the

sliding velocity, t the test time and h the height loss of the
specimen. In this equation, the wear factor, k* is supposed to
be a material parameter corresponding to the alteration of the
product of pv factors. Based on Eq. (1), the pv factor could
be considered as a tribological criterion of the load-carrying
capacity for bearing materials, which results in two evaluation parameters [3]: (i) the basic wear factor k* , which keeps
constant in a certain range of pv factor, and (ii) the limiting
pv, above which the increase of the wear rate of materials
is too rapid to be applied. To reduce the basic wear factor k*
and to enhance the limiting pv value are the general targets
of the design of wear resistant polymer composites.

142

L. Chang et al. / Wear 258 (2005) 141148

Wear rate, frictional coefficient and contact temperature

are important tribological parameters, which show strong relationships among each other. A great deal of work has been
done for the attempts to formulate these relationships between the frictional coefficient and the wear rate [9,12] or
the temperature [1315], respectively. Although the sliding
process and mechanisms of energy dissipation were found to
be too complex to form comprehensive quantitative formulations, qualitative relationships could be expected. In an earlier
work [16,17], under a typical wear condition of 1 MPa and
1 m/s, the enhancement of wear resistance of epoxy has been
reported by integrating nano-TiO2 together with traditional
fillers, e.g. PTFE, graphite and short carbon fibre (SCF). In
order to continue this effort, this paper concentrates on the
understanding of correlations among these three essential tribological parameters, and to tailor the potential application,
especially for high contact pressures and sliding velocities.
Qualitative correlations of these tribological parameters were
examined and discussed, together with the time-related depth
wear rate. To further understand the related wear mechanisms
on how nanoparticles contribute to an improved wear resistance, and what are the functions of the two solid lubricants
applied, i.e. PTFE powders and graphite flakes, the subsequent parts of this paper will be reported [18,19].

Fig. 1. A schematic diagram of the pin-on-disc test apparatus.

carbon fibres (Kureha M-2007S), PTFE powders (Dyneon

9207) and graphite flakes (Superior 9039) were selected as
traditional reinforcements. The average diameter of short carbon fibres was approximately 14.5 m with an average fibre
length of about 90 m. The particle size of PTFE was about
4 m, and around 20 m for graphite flakes. TiO2 (Kronos
2310) with an average diameter of 300 nm was also applied as
an additional reinforcement. The composites were prepared
by mechanical mixing using a commercially available laboratory mixing device. Details of the prepreg procedure were
reported in Ref. [17]. All compositions involved in this study
were summarized in Table 1. For convenience, the materials will be symbolized as [nano-TiO2 /PTFE/graphite/SCF]
in volume content of each filler in this paper.

2. Experimental

2.2. Wear test

2.1. Materials

The wear test was performed on a Wazau pin-on-disc (P-oD) apparatus according to ASTM D3702. As shown in Fig. 1,
the specimen pin was rotated on a flat steel disc with a radius
of 16.5 mm. The initial surface roughness of the counterpart
was about 0.23 m. All tests in this study were conducted

A commercially available epoxy resin (Dow DER 331)

cured by a polyamine hardener (Dow HY 2954) was considered as the matrix material in this study. Pitch-based short

Table 1
Compositions and tribological properties of epoxy composites under 1 MPa and 1 m/s
Symbols of composition

Matrix
(vol.%)

Nano-TiO2
(vol.%)

Graphite
(vol.%)

SCF
(vol.%)

PTFE
(vol.%)

Density
(g/mm3 )

Frictional
coefficient

Specific wear rate

(106 mm3 /N m)

Neat matrix
5/0/0/0
5/0/0/15
0/0/10/0
0/0/0/10
0/0/10/0
0/10/10/10
0/5/5/5
0/5/5/15
0/5/10/15
5/0/5/5
5/0/5/15
5/0/10/15
5/10/0/15
5/5/5/15
5/0/15/15
2/0/15/15
6/0/15/15
10/0/15/15
10/0/5/5

100
95
80
90
90
90
70
85
75
70
85
75
70
70
70
65
68
64
60
80

0
5
5
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
5
5
5
5
5
5
2
6
10
10

0
0
0
10
0
0
10
5
5
10
5
5
10
0
5
15
15
15
15
5

0
0
15
0
10
0
10
5
15
15
5
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
5

0
0
0
0
0
10
10
5
5
5
0
0
0
10
5
0
0
0
0
0

1.13
1.28
1.3
1.14
1.23
1.58
1.18
1.2
1.28
1.27
1.35
1.39
1.42
1.31
1.44
1.48
1.4
1.58
1.61
1.5

1.18
1.02
0.43
0.59
0.59
0.54
0.59
0.59
0.59
0.72
0.41
0.34
0.38
0.5
0.49
0.41
0.37
0.38
0.35
0.43

5.63
17.56
3.95
7.07
4.6
1.02
0.75
0.94
0.81
0.88
0.55
0.45
0.64
0.86
0.89
0.47
0.53
0.57
0.52
0.67

L. Chang et al. / Wear 258 (2005) 141148

for 20 h under dry condition at room temperature. The reduction of specimens height was observed by a displacement
sensor. The temperature of the disc was monitored by an
iron-constantan thermocouple positioned on the edge of the
disc, which was recorded as contact temperature [13]. The
frictional coefficient was recorded and calculated by a ratio
between the tangential force and normal load. The mass loss
of the specimen was measured after the wear test in order
to calculate the specific wear rate by the following equation,
which is the same as the wear factor, k* .
S = m (mm3 /N m)
W
FN L

(2)

in which FN is the normal load applied on the specimen during

sliding, m the specimens mass loss, the density of the
specimen, and L the total sliding distance.
Table 1 summarizes all the wear tests under a standard
sliding condition of 1 MPa and 1 m/s, and each result was an
average value of at least three experimental data. Both the
frictional coefficient and the contact temperature given in the
tables were mean values during the steady state of the wear
process. In order to evaluate the load-carrying capacity, selected compositions were tested in a wide range of pv factors,
e.g. the nominal pressure in a range from 0.5 to 12 MPa and

143

the sliding velocity from 0.5 to 3 m/s. Results were given in

Table 2.
3. Results and discussions
3.1. Standard wear condition: 1 MPa and 1 m/s
As given in Table 1, the frictional coefficient of epoxy
composites, filled with short carbon fibres (SCF), graphite
and/or PTFE, could be further reduced by the addition of
nano-TiO2 . Consequently, the wear resistance of nanocomposites was also improved. In the present case, a composition
of [5/0/5/15] reached both the lowest frictional coefficient and
highest wear resistance under 1 MPa and 1 m/s.
To compare with our previous measurements conducted
on a block-on-ring (B-o-R) apparatus [17], Fig. 2a summarizes the specific wear rate as a function of material composition filled with or without nanoparticles and tested on both
apparatuses. It has been found that the wear rates measured
by the two apparatuses were very well comparable, and the
improved wear resistances were achieved for nanocomposites in both cases. As shown in Fig. 2b, a parallel tendency
on the reduction of the frictional coefficient was also observed. It is interesting to note in Fig. 2a that the specific wear

Table 2
Wear results of the composites under various contact pressures and sliding velocities
Composition

pv factor

Contact temperature ( C)

Frictional coefficient

Specific wear rate (106 mm3 /N m)

0/5/5/15

1 MPa, 1 m/s
2 MPa, 1 m/s
4 MPa, 1 m/s
1 MPa, 0.5 m/s
1 MPa, 2 m/s

34.07
67.98
82.78
25.95
62.27

0.59
0.78
0.63
0.47
1.08

0.81
2.08
4.28
0.55
3.14

5/0/5/15

1 MPa, 1 m/s
2 MPa, 1 m/s
4 MPa, 1 m/s
8 MPa, 1 m/s
1 MPa, 0.5 m/s
1 MPa, 2 m/s
4 MPa, 2 m/s

26.06
32.09
41.67
50.36
24.56
30.35
46.41

0.33
0.28
0.22
0.14
0.32
0.40
0.17

0.45
0.72
0.83
1.49
0.51
0.69
1.72

5/0/10/15

1 MPa, 1 m/s
4 MPa, 1 m/s
8 MPa, 1 m/s
12 MPa, 1 m/s
4 MPa, 2 m/s
4 MPa, 3 m/s

29.00
38.84
44.12
43.14
40.91
55.77

0.38
0.21
0.13
0.09
0.15
0.16

0.64
0.82
1.54
0.96
1.54
2.64

5/10/0/15

1 MPa, 1 m/s
4 MPa, 1 m/s
8 MPa, 1 m/s
12 MPa, 1 m/s
4 MPa, 2 m/s
4 MPa, 3 m/s

29.41
52.33
69.12
74.92
71.45
78.57

0.50
0.33
0.26
0.18
0.30
0.23

0.86
1.12
1.71
1.26
2.64
2.31

5/5/5/15

1 MPa, 1 m/s
4 MPa, 1 m/s
8 MPa, 1 m/s
12 MPa, 1 m/s
4 MPa, 2 m/s
4 MPa, 3 m/s

29.74
50.99
57.24
60.65
54.90
67.20

0.49
0.33
0.21
0.14
0.21
0.20

0.89
0.98
1.22
0.95
1.09
1.40

144

L. Chang et al. / Wear 258 (2005) 141148

Fig. 3. Comparisons of the frictional process i.e. the frictional coefficient and
the contact temperature of the compositions [0/5/515] without nanoparticles
and [5/0/5/15] with nanoparticles under a standard wear condition, i.e. 1 MPa
and 1 m/s.

Fig. 2. Comparisons of the wear performances of various groups of epoxy

composites with 5 vol.% of nano-TiO2 instead of the same amount of PTFE
under a standard wear condition, i.e. 1 MPa and 1 m/s: (a) the specific wear
rate measured with both P-o-D and B-o-R apparatuses, and (b) the frictional
coefficient measured with P-o-D apparatus.

rates of all the three nanocomposites measured by the P-o-D

were a little lower than that by the B-o-R, which is totally
contrary for the composites without nanoparticles. To consider the configurations of two test apparatuses, the contact
surface between the composite pin and counterpart remains
unchanging during sliding in the P-o-D, whereas the contact situation changed from a linear contact to an arc surface
contact for the B-o-R. Therefore, an extremely high contact
pressure occurs for the case of B-o-R. The wear resistance
of the materials measured by the B-o-R was not only determined by the wear performance under a constant sliding
condition but also influenced by the load-carrying capacity.
It is clear that the lower wear rate resulted from the B-o-R
inferred to the good mechanical load-carrying capacity of the
nanocomposites, in comparison with the composites without
nanoparticles.
Fig. 3 compares the typical variations of the frictional
coefficient against sliding time for compositions [0/5/5/15]
without and [5/0/5/15] with nanoparticles. For both composites, increased frictional coefficients were observed at the
initial wear stages, which were mainly due to the increased
real contact areas during initial wear process. After about 5 h,

the frictional coefficient of [0/5/5/15] became steady with a

mean value of about 0.6. However, a significant decrease of
the frictional coefficient was observed for the composition
of [5/0/5/15] with nanoparticles after the initial wear stage,
therefore a peak value at about 2.5 h was reached. Finally, the
frictional coefficient was decreased down to a stable value of
0.4. Two possible effects of nanoparticles may contribute to
the reduction of the frictional coefficient. One is a nanoscale
polishing effect, which has already been mentioned according to the SEM observations in Ref. [16]. With appropriate
size, hardness and volume content, nanoparticles could polish
the counterpart surface in a very fine scale [20]. As a result,
the frictional coefficient and the related shear stress were
reduced. Another assumption is a rolling effect of nanoparticles. In some researches with various material pairs [21,22],
a rolling effect of the nano- or micro-scale particles could be
expected under certain wear conditions, e.g. surface roughness and hardness of the material pairs and particles etc. This
effect could reduce both the frictional coefficient and the wear
rate.
During sliding wear, the frictional energy is a dominant
reason for heat generation, which determines the contact temperature. On the other hand, the contact temperature could
greatly affect the mechanical properties of polymer composite and consequently influences the wear performance. Fig. 3
shows the curves of temperature during whole test durations
of two composites considered. It is clear that the tendencies
of contact temperature and frictional coefficient were well
coincided with each other. The reduced frictional coefficient
with nanoparticles leads to a lower contact temperature for
[5/0/5/15] in steady state wear. Therefore, the specific wear
rate was accordingly reduced.
3.2. Various contact pressures
Fig. 4 presents both wear rate and frictional coefficient of
composition [5/0/5/15] with nanoparticles in comparison to

L. Chang et al. / Wear 258 (2005) 141148

that of [0/5/5/15] without nanoparticles under different normal pressures. The pressure increased from 1 to 4 MPa, while
sliding velocity kept as constant at 1 m/s. As shown in Fig. 4a,
the specific wear rates of both compositions were enhanced
with an increased pressure. However, the slope of nanocomposite was much smaller, which means that the reduction of
wear rate by incorporating nano-TiO2 was much more remarkable at a higher contact pressure. The frictional coefficient of the composites with or without nanoparticles was
compared in Fig. 4b. For [0/5/5/15] without nano-TiO2 , no
obvious trend was observed and a peak value of the frictional
coefficient was obtained at 2 MPa. However, the frictional coefficient of nanocomposite was steadily decreased with the
increased load. There are mainly two dominant effects, i.e. the
real contact area and load-carrying capacity, govern the frictional behaviour of composites at various contact pressures.
The steady reduction of the frictional coefficient of nanocomposite indicated that the load-carrying capacity of composites
was improved by nano-fillers. A strengthened polishing effect of nano-TiO2 under an elevated compressive stress could
also contribute to this phenomenon. The improved wear resistance of nanocomposite under high contact pressure could
also support the explanation of a lower wear rate resulted
from the B-o-R compared to that from the P-o-D discussed
in Section 3.1.

145

Fig. 5. Sliding processes, i.e. the variations of the rate of specific frictional work and the contact temperature, of composition [0/5/5/15] without
nanoparticles under different contact pressures.

In order to analyse the correlation between frictional energy and contact temperature, the rate of specific frictional
f was introduced, which is defined as,
work W
f = pv (N m/m2 s)
W

(3)

in which, is the frictional coefficient. As shown in

f and conFigs. 5 and 6, the tendencies of the curves of W
tact temperature coincide with each other very well for either
with or without nanoparticles. According to the lower stable frictional coefficient in the case of nano-TiO2 , the contact temperature was apparently lower, especially under high
pressures. Simultaneously, the running-in stages of both composites were reduced with an increased contact load.
3.3. Various sliding velocities
Fig. 7 presents the dependence of the specific wear rate and
the frictional coefficient of the two composites on different

Fig. 4. Comparisons of the wear performances of compositions [0/5/5/15]

and [5/0/5/15] under different contact pressures, where the sliding velocity
kept constant at 1 m/s: (a) the specific wear rates, and (b) the frictional
coefficient.

Fig. 6. Sliding processes, i.e. the variations of the rate of specific frictional
work and the contact temperature, of composition [5/0/5/15] with nanoparticles under different contact pressures.

146

L. Chang et al. / Wear 258 (2005) 141148

Fig. 9. Sliding processes, i.e. the variations of the rate of specific frictional
work and the contact temperature, of composition [5/0/5/15] with nanoparticles at different sliding velocities.

Fig. 7. Comparisons of the wear performances of compositions [0/5/5/15]

and [5/0/5/15] at different sliding velocities, where the contact pressure kept
constant at 1 MPa: (a) the specific wear rates, and (b) the frictional coefficient.

sliding velocities. Typical curves of the rate of specific frictional work and temperature during the whole test duration
were additionally given in Figs. 8 and 9, respectively. It can be
found that the frictional coefficient and the contact temperature of both two compositions were simultaneously enhanced
with an increased sliding velocity. However, the frictional coefficient was kept almost the same at different sliding veloci-

Fig. 8. Sliding processes, i.e. the variations of the rate of specific frictional work and the contact temperature, of composition [0/5/5/15] without
nanoparticles at different sliding velocities.

ties, and the absolute values of temperature of the nanocomposite were much lower compared to that without nanoparticles under a similar sliding condition.
The contact temperature under different sliding conditions
were plotted against the rate of specific frictional work in
Fig. 10 in order to further understand the correlation between
these two parameters. It was clear that the contact temperature was almost linearly proportional to the rate of frictional
work. Therefore, the addition of nano-TiO2 effectively reduced the frictional coefficient and consequently resulted in
a lower contact temperature. As a result, the wear resistance
of nanocomposite was progressively improved, especially at
high sliding speed situations.
3.4. Time-related depth wear rate
The time-related depth wear rate calculated by Eq. (1) was
evaluated as a function of the pv factor in Fig. 11, in order
to comprehensively understand the wear behaviour of epoxy
composites with or without nano-TiO2 . To avoid the measurement error on the height reduction which may be due

Fig. 10. The steady state contact temperature against the steady state rate of
specific frictional work under various sliding conditions.

L. Chang et al. / Wear 258 (2005) 141148

Fig. 11. Comparisons of the time-related depth wear rate of epoxy composites filled with and without nano-TiO2 as a function of pv factor.

to the elastic deformation under a high contact pressure, the

finial mass loss was applied to calculate the depth wear rate.
It is clear that the basic wear factor k* of the nanocomposite was apparently lower. Furthermore, for the composition
of [0/5/5/15] without nanoparticles, the change of the depth
wear rate curve from linear to nonlinear occurred between 2
and 4 MPa m/s, whereas for the nanocomposite [5/0/5/15] it
occurred between 4 and 8 MPa m/s. It is clear that the pv
limiting for the latter was certainly improved.
Based on further investigations of the epoxy nanocomposites with lubricants in different proportions and combinations, it has been found that at an extreme high pv factor, e.g.
12 MPa m/s, the composite with a combination of both two
lubricants, i.e. a composition of [5/5/5/15], produced the best
wear resistance as shown in Table 2. Nevertheless, different
compositions should still be considered according to various
wear conditions in practice.

4. Conclusions
In the present paper, tribological performances of epoxybased composites filled with short carbon fibres, graphite,
PTFE and nano-TiO2 in different proportions and combinations were systematically studied under different sliding
conditions. The following conclusions can be drawn:
1. Wear results of pin-on-disc were well comparable to that
of block-on-ring under a standard sliding condition, i.e.
1 MPa and 1 m/s. The lower wear rates resulted from the
B-o-R indicated to the good mechanical load-carrying capacity of nanocomposites.
2. Owing to a nano-scale rolling effect of TiO2 particles
on short carbon fibres, the frictional coefficient of epoxy
nanocomposites was reduced and the contact temperature
was consequently decreased under all test conditions. A
good coincidence between the variations of frictional energy and contact temperature during sliding was observed
experimentally.

147

3. Wear resistance was certainly improved by incorporating

nano-TiO2 (300 nm) into epoxy composites, especially at
high contact pressure and high sliding speed. A reduction
of the basic wear factor k* and an enhancement of the
load-carrying capacity were achieved, which will promote
this materials for the applications under more severe wear
conditions.
4. Under a standard sliding condition, i.e. 1 MPa and 1 m/s,
the lowest wear rate was achieved for epoxy filled with
each 15 vol.% of graphite and short carbon fibre together with 5 vol.% nano-TiO2 . However, a composition
with combined lubricants, i.e. each 5 vol.% of nano-TiO2 ,
graphite and PTFE, together with 15 vol.% of SCF, exhibited the highest wear resistance at an extreme high pv
factor, i.e. 12 MPa m/s.

Acknowledgement
Z. Zhang is grateful to the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for his Sofja Kovalevskaja Award, financed by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)
within the German Governments ZIP program for investment in the future.

References
[1] T. Tsukizoe, N. Ohmae, Friction and wear performance of unidirectionally oriented glass, carbon, aramid and stainless steel fibrereinforced plastics, in: K. Friedrich (Ed.), Friction and Wear of
Polymer Composites, Elsevier Science Publishers B.V., 1986, pp.
205231.
[2] W. Bonfield, B.C. Edwards, A.J. Markham, J.R. White, Wear transfer films formed by carbon fibre reinforced epoxy resin sliding on
stainless steel, Wear 37 (1976) 113121.
[3] K. Friedrich, Wear of reinforced polymers by different abrasive counterparts, in: K. Friedrich (Ed.), Friction and Wear of Polymer Composites, Elsevier Science Publishers B.V., 1986, pp. 233287.
[4] M. Hokao, S. Hironaka, Y. Suda, Y. Yamamoto, Friction and wear
properties of graphite/glassy carbon composites, Wear 237 (2000)
5462.
[5] S. Bahadur, The development of transfer layers and their role in
polymer tribology, Wear 245 (2000) 9299.
[6] S. Bahadur, V.K. Polineni, Tribological studies of glass fabricreinforced polyamide composites filled with CuO and PTFE, Wear
200 (1996) 95104.
[7] A.A. Cenna, P. Dastoor, A. Beehag, N.W. Page, Effects of graphite
particle addition upon the abrasive wear of polymer surfaces, J.
Mater. Sci. 36 (2001) 891900.
[8] K. Friedrich, R. Reinicke, Z. Zhang, Wear of polymer composites,
Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng. J: J. Eng. Tribol. 216 (2002) 415426.
[9] K. Kato, Wear in relation to friction a review, Wear 241 (2000)
151157.
[10] G.W. Stachowiak, A.W. Batchelor, Engineering Tribology, 2nd ed.,
Butterworths/Heinemann, Woburn, 2001, pp. 619667.
[11] H. Czichos, Introduction on friction and wear, in: K. Friedrich (Ed.),
Friction and Wear of Polymer Composites, Elsevier Science Publishers B.V., 1986, pp. 123.
[12] M. Vaziri, R.T. Spurr, F.H. Stott, An investigation of the wear of
polymeric materials, Wear 122 (1988) 329342.

148

L. Chang et al. / Wear 258 (2005) 141148

[13] Z. Eliezer, C.J. Schulz, J.W. Barlow, Friction and wear properties of
an epoxy-steel system, Wear 46 (1978) 397403.
[14] M. Shimbo, M. Ochi, N. Ohoyama, Frictional behavior of cured
epoxide resins, Wear 91 (1983) 89101.
[15] R. Bassani, G. Levita, M. Meozzi, G. Palla, Friction and wear
of epoxy resin on inox steel: remarks on the influence of velocity, load and induced thermal state, Wear 247 (2001) 125
132.
[16] Z. Zhang, F. Haupert, K. Friedrich, Enhancement on wear resistance
of polymer composites by nano-fillers, German Patent Application
No. 10329228.4, 2003.
[17] Z. Zhang, C. Breidt, L. Chang, F. Haupert, K. Friedrich, Enhancement on wear resistance of epoxy: short carbon fibre, Graphite, PTFE
and Nano-TiO2 , Composites Part A: Appl. Sci. Manuf. 35 (2004)
13851392.

[18] L. Chang, Z. Zhang, Tribological properties of epoxy nanocomposites: II. A combinative effect of short carbon fibre and nano-TiO2 ,
Wear, submitted for publication.
[19] L. Chang, Z. Zhang, Tribological properties of epoxy nanocomposites: III. Influence of solid lubricants PTFE powders and graphite
flakes, Wear, submitted for publication.
[20] L. Kahlman, I.M. Hutchings, Effect of particulate contamination in
grease-lubricated hybrid rolling bearings, Tribol. Trans. 42 (1999)
842850.
[21] R.S. Dwyer-Joyce, R.S. Sayles, E. Ioannides, An investigation into
the mechanisms of closed three-body abrasive wear, Wear 175 (1994)
133142.
[22] R.I. Trezona, D.N. Allsopp, I.M. Hutchings, Transitions between
two-body and three-body abrasive wear: influence of test conditions
in the microscale abrasive wear test, Wear 225229 (1999) 205214.