Tribology of polymeric materials part 2 - Properties and tribological behaviour of polymeric materials

Tribological investigations can be conducted at several size scales, from micro-level to nano-level. On this basis we can develop correlations between viscoelasticity, brittleness and tribological behaviour of polymer-based materials that reflect the effects of composition, orientation in the magnetic field and surface treatments. The relationship between the degree of viscoelastic recovery after sliding wear and brittleness was analyzed in 2006. Significant improvements of properties, including the tribological ones are discussed, by addition of inorganic micro-particles and nano-par-ticles of fillers. The importance of surface and interface tensions in multiphase systems on tribological properties has been noted. Computer simulations of tribological behaviour as supplement to experiments are described. The basic differences between micro- and nano-tribology are presented.