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Durability Improvement of Concentrated Polymer Brushes by Multiscale Texturing

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Abstract

Concentrated polymer brushes (CPBs) are promising soft-material coatings for improving tribological properties under severe sliding conditions, even in the macroscopic scale. Therefore, they are expected to be applied to mechanical sliding components. However, the durability of CPBs has remained challenging for industrial applications. Previous studies revealed that applying a groove texture to the CPB substrate is effective in improving the durability of CPBs. In order to achieve further improvement of durability of CPBs, we attempted to apply nano-periodic structures, whereas the groove texture applied in previous studies has widths and depths in micrometres. In this study, the effect of the nano-periodic structure in addition to the groove texture applied to the CPB substrate on the durability of CPB is investigated. The results demonstrate a significant improvement in the durability of CPBs by up to 90% compared with non-textured CPB when an appropriate nano-periodic structure is applied (i.e. a nano-periodic structure oriented parallel to the groove texture).

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  • 14 July 2021

    Supplementary information has been added

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Acknowledgements

This work was financed by the Accelerated Innovation Research Initiative Turning Top Science and Ideas into High-Impact Values (ACCEL: JPMJAC1503) of the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST).

Funding

This work was supported by the Accelerated Innovation Research Initiative Turning Top Science and Ideas into High-Impact Values (ACCEL: JPMJAC1503) of the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tokyo University of Science, 6-3-1 Niijyuku, Katsushika, Tokyo, 125-8585, Japan

    Seiya Watanabe, Eri Kodama & Shinya Sasaki

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Saitama University, 255 Shimo-Okubo, Sakura-ku, Saitama, 338-8570, Japan

    Chiharu Tadokoro

  3. Research Institute for Sustainable Chemistry, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), 3-11-32 Kagami-yama, Higashi-hiroshima, Hiroshima, 739-0046, Japan

    Keita Sakakibara

  4. Institute for Chemical Research, Kyoto University, Gokasho Uji, Kyoto, 611-0011, Japan

    Keita Sakakibara & Yoshinobu Tsujii

  5. Faculty of Environment and Information Sciences, Yokohama National University, 79-7 Tokiwadai, Hodogaya, Yokohama, 240-8501, Japan

    Ken Nakano

Authors
  1. Seiya Watanabe
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  2. Eri Kodama
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  3. Chiharu Tadokoro
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  4. Keita Sakakibara
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  5. Ken Nakano
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  6. Shinya Sasaki
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  7. Yoshinobu Tsujii
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Correspondence to Seiya Watanabe.

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Watanabe, S., Kodama, E., Tadokoro, C. et al. Durability Improvement of Concentrated Polymer Brushes by Multiscale Texturing. Tribol Lett 69, 99 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11249-021-01474-2

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