Improved Tribological Performance of MOF@MXene/PI under High Temperature

High-temperature-resistant and self-lubricating polymer composites with long life and high reliability are increasingly indispensable in the aerospace field. Herein, ZIF-67 grown on the MXene lamella was successfully prepared, and ZIF-67@MXene/PI composites with a regular layered structure were obtained by a hot-pressing three-dimensional network aerogel. It was revealed that incorporating ZIF-67@MXene into PI dramatically reduced the friction and abrasion with elevated temperatures. Largely, aerogel walls always paralleled the sliding direction by compressing, providing a significant antifriction effect. More notably, the presence of a vigorous tribofilm composed of a PI matrix and a diamond-type lattice MOF-modified MXene provided rolling and sliding interface friction under high temperatures, simultaneously. In addition, the uniform tribofilm with a thickness of about 200 nm can effectively avoid the direct contact of the friction pair during the sliding process. Hence, the combination of the constructed multiscale nanocomposites and nanostructured tribofilm with outstanding tribological performance endow the material potentially useful in reducing energy consumption, thus addressing the energy wastage problem caused by friction.