Study of the effect of hexagonal boron nitride addition to thermoplastic polyester elastomer composites reinforced with carbon, glass and basalt fibers

In this study, the effect of hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) addition at different weight ratios to thermoplastic polyester elastomer (TPEE) reinforced with three different fiber types, namely carbon fiber (CF), glass fiber (GF) and basalt fiber (BF), on the mechanical, tribological and thermal properties of the composites was investigated. Adhesive wear test for tribological analysis, tensile and three-point bending tests for mechanical analysis, differential scanning calorimetry and thermogravimetric analyses for thermal investigation and scanning electron microscopy analysis for morphological evaluation were applied. The results showed that the addition of hBN to fiber-reinforced TPEE composites, regardless of the fiber type, and the increasing weight ratio of hBN improved the wear, mechanical and thermal properties of the composites. However, when comparing the synergistic effect of hBN when used simultaneously with fiber reinforcement on the basis of fiber type, CF was found to outperform GF and BF fiber types and hybrid reinforced composites containing 10 wt% hBN and CF to exhibit superior tribological, mechanical and thermal properties. It is also concluded that BF performs at a comparable level to GF and therefore can be used instead of GF in some applications.