ABRASIVE WEAR BEHAVIOR OF NATURAL CARBON BLACK REINFORCED POLYMER COMPOSITES

In this study, we investigated the abrasive wear behavior of carbon black (CB)/bio-char reinforced polymer composites. A pyrolysis/gasification technique was used to produce CB filler at high temperatures from orange peel particulates, a biowaste material, under controlled or oxygen-free conditions. In the abrasive wear test, the composite samples were fabricated by a hand lay-up technique using different percentages by weight (wt%) of the CB filler loadings (5%, 10%, 15%, and 20%). The wear behavior was successfully investigated using a pin-on disc apparatus. The effects of the carbonization temperature, filler loadings, and normal load on the sliding wear behavior of the fabricated specimens were investigated. It was observed that the tribological behavior of the polymer composite material was enhanced by incorporating the CB filler material, where optimal results were observed at higher carbonization temperatures (800?). Sliding wear tests were performed at room temperature under various loading conditions (5, 10, 15, and 20 N) and different filler loadings (wt%), where optimal results were obtained for the 20 wt% filler loadings. From the experiment, it was observed that the abrasive wear resistance was enhanced by 67% and 70% by incorporating CB filler material at carbonization temperatures of 400? and 800?, respectively. A microstructure analysis of the worn surfaces was done by scanning electron microscopy to investigate the wear behavior of the specimens.