الفهرس 
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Abstract
In the present investigation, the tribological characteristics of epoxy resins reinforced with multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), were investigated. Polymeric matrix nanocomposites (PMNCs) containing 0.025, 0.05 and 0.1 vol.-% of MWCNTs were prepared. The effect of dispersion of the MWCNTs on the hardness of epoxy resin was evaluated. Moreover, the tribological behaviour of such PMNCs was extensively investigated against a 316 stainless steel disc under both dry sliding and water lubricated conditions. The wear experiments were designed using design of experiment (DoE) approach. The effect of the applied load, sliding velocity and sliding distance on both the coefficient of friction (COF) and the wear rate (WR) of the epoxy PMNCs were investigated.
The results revealed that epoxy/MWCNTs nanocomposites exhibited higher hardness than the neat epoxy. Increasing the volume fraction of the MWCNTs increases the bulk hardness of the nanocomposites. A maximum hardness of 20.23 VHN was observed for epoxy/MWCNTs nanocomposites containing 0.1 Vol.-% of MWCNTs.
Generally, it has been found that the epoxy/MWCNTs nanocomposites have improved the tribological performance than the pure epoxy under both dry sliding and water lubricating conditions. This increase of the wear resistance is proportional to the volume fraction of MWCNTs. The wear rates of the epoxy/MWCNTs nanocomposites increases with increasing the sliding speed, applied load as well as the sliding distance.
The pure epoxy exhibited the higher coefficient of friction when compared with the nanocomposites. The minimum coefficient of friction is obtained with the water lubrication rather than the dry and both 1% and 3.5 wt.-% saline solutions.
Using such saline solutions as lubricants tend to decrease the coefficient of friction more than in the dry sliding condition.