Friction and Wear of Semi-Crystalline Polytetrafluoroethylene with Spherulitic Micro-Morphology

Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) is an important engineering material with a low coefficient of friction but a high rate of wear. As a semi‐crystalline polymer, its wear resistance is related to its micro‐morphology. Friction and wear properties of semi‐crystalline non‐spherulitic PTFE have been widely studied, but no investigation is reported about tribological properties of spherulitic PTFE due to difficulties in finding such properties. In this paper, friction and wear properties of PTFE with spherulitic micro‐morphology are studied for the first time. The results show that, first, under the same experimental condition, when two kinds of PTFE are rubbed against the steel disc, the number and size of debris of spherulitic PTFE are much less and smaller than that of debris of PTFE without spherulitic crystals. This means that the wear resistance of spherulitic PTFE is better than that of semi‐crystalline PTFE without spherulitic micro‐morphology. Second, the friction property of spherulitic PTFE is also different from that of PTFE without spherulitic crystals. Finally, the friction and wear mechanisms of spherulitic PTFE and non‐spherulitic PTFE are compared.