Elucidation of failure micromechanisms involved in wear and fracture of polyethylene composites by means of multiple microscopy techniques.

V PETTARÍN; PATRICIA FRONTINI

BUENOS AIRES

Congreso; Sam/Conamet 2009; 2009

In order to understand material?s behavior structural observations must be correlated with material?s properties. In this work a combination of microscopy techniques ? transmition optical microscopy (TOM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) complemented with backscatterd electron images (BEI) and electron probe microanalyses (EPMA) ? was used to elucidate wear and fracture failure mechanisms of thermoplastic composites. High density polyethylene/molybdenum disulphide composites were investigated. Different features were elucidated: composites morphology, relationship between MoS2 content and microstructure, and the correlation structure/damage mechanism/property. Results demonstrate that wear and fracture failure mechanisms strongly depends on composites? microstructure and morphology