Friction and wear properties of carbon nanotube-reinforced polymer composites

Abstract Polymers and their composites are playing major roles in various industrial usages where friction and wear are major issues. The friction and wear behavior of fiber-reinforced composites depends on the production as well as the functional and ecological parameters. The particular type of fiber material employed in fabrication also plays a critical role on these properties. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) discovered earlier have found wide applications in different fields due to their excellent properties. CNTs have very good material strength and higher modulus and are used as wearable materials in many tribological applications. From the existing literature, it was found that composite materials with CNTs used as reinforcing materials have a stable frictional coefficient with a lower wear rate. In this chapter, the wear and friction properties of CNT-reinforced composites are discussed in detail.