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Tribological Properties of Ultra-Thin Functionalized Polyethylene Film Chemisorbed on Si with an Intermediate Benzophenone Layer

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Abstract

In this study, an ultra-thin (~20 nm) functionalized polyethylene (fPE) film is successfully attached to Si substrate via a reactive benzophenone (Ph2CO) layer. The presence of fPE promotes wear durability of Si/Ph2CO/fPE to 1,000 cycles compared with 100 cycles for Si/Ph2CO and nearly zero wear life for bare Si in a ball-on-disk (4-mm-diameter Si3N4 ball) wear test under 40 mN applied normal load and 500 rpm sliding speed. As an enhancement to the wear life, perfluoropolyether (PFPE) is applied as a top mobile lubricant layer coated onto Si/Ph2CO and Si/Ph2CO/fPE. A significant improvement in the wear durability is observed as Si/Ph2CO/PFPE fails at 250,000 cycles and Si/Ph2CO/fPE/PFPE does not fail until one million cycles. Si/Ph2CO/fPE/PFPE can withstand a minimum applied load of 150 mN at a sliding speed of 0.052 ms−1 without failure, providing a PV (pressure x velocity) limit of greater than 106.6 MPa ms−1.

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Acknowledgments

This study is based on research work supported by the Singapore National Research Foundation under CRP Award no. NRF-CRP 2-2007-04. We would like to thank Dr. N. Satyanarayana for his valuable suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore, 9 Engineering Drive 1, Singapore, 117576, Singapore

    Myo Minn, Yanadi S. G. Soetanto & Sujeet K. Sinha

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  1. Myo Minn
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  2. Yanadi S. G. Soetanto
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  3. Sujeet K. Sinha
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Correspondence to Sujeet K. Sinha.

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Minn, M., Soetanto, Y.S.G. & Sinha, S.K. Tribological Properties of Ultra-Thin Functionalized Polyethylene Film Chemisorbed on Si with an Intermediate Benzophenone Layer. Tribol Lett 41, 217–226 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11249-010-9703-4

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