Mechanical and tribological properties of polyimide based composites reinforced with surface-modified short carbon and glass fibers

It was shown that loading with carbon and glass fibers results in increasing mechanical properties of polyimide (PI) based composites. Upon annealing and subsequent treatment of the fibers with a silane-coupling agent the tensile strength of the composites increased compared to loading with the unmodified fillers. The ultimate reason was increasing degree of interphase adhesion. It was shown that loading with carbon and glass fibers increased wear resistance of the composites. When testing over a ceramic counterpart, the wearing of the composites was slightly evident. In this regard, one can recommend application of these composites to operate in friction units in ceramic-polymer tribological conjugations.