A comparative study on wear and friction characteristics of phenolic composite coatings filled with different morphologies ZnO

In this paper, different morphologies ZnO (disk-like, rod-like, and nanoparticles) were introduced into phenolic composite coatings to comparatively investigate the tribological properties. The structural and morphological characterization was conducted with Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and scanning electron microscopy. The tribological performances of composite coatings were evaluated using ring-on-block tester under dry condition at room temperature. Experimental results indicated that composite coatings filled with 1 wt% ZnO micro-disks possessed the optimal tribological performances. It was attributed to the strong interfacial interaction between ZnO micro-disks and phenolic matrix induced by their specific polar structure. Moreover, different loads and sliding speeds were employed to further evaluate the tribological performances of ZnO micro-disks/phenolic composite coatings. The outcome revealed that ZnO micro-disks were potential anti-wear fillers under harsh condition.