Mo₂C-reinforced UHMWPE composites: improved mechanical and tribological properties for outdoor environmental applications

Abstract

Ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) is used in various tribological applications due to its minimal friction coefficient and better wear resistance. However, advances in industrial sector needs further improvements to withstand adverse operating conditions. To fulfill these requirements, molybdenum carbide (Mo₂C) is used in this research as a filler to improve the mechanical and tribological properties of UHMWPE. Compression molding technique is used to fabricate UHMWPE composite with varying percentage of Mo₂C (3, 6 and 9 wt%). To understand the effect of filler addition under environmental exposure, developed composites are subjected to accelerated weathering for 555.55 h in a Xenon arc light equipment. Mechanical testing revealed that 6 wt% Mo₂C addition improves the tensile and modulus of resilience by 7.97% and 47.51% respectively, which also reduces the wear rate by 64.71%. After accelerated weathering, the developed composites retained their mechanical strength to 95% while UHMWPE retained only 93%. These observations depict that Mo₂C has better ability to retain the performance of UHMWPE under open environmental conditions that make them candidate materials for outdoor applications.