Effect of the Cryogenic Treatment on Polyamide and Optimization of Its Parameters for the Enhancement of Wear Performance

Polyamide (PA) is generally used in automotive applications in which the extensive mechanistic situations lead the material to wear. To deal with this situation, attempts are made to treat this material cryogenically using liquid nitrogen. The material is treated at different temperatures (?80, ?140 and ?185?°C) for stipulated time period (4, 8, 12, 16, 20 and 24?h) in the cryostat. Cryo-treated samples are then allowed to attain the ambient temperature and tested for studying the effect of cryogenic treatment. Selected material is also studied simultaneously for thermal ageing. The mechanical, thermal and structural properties of ??un-treated?? and ??cryo-treated?? PA are studied in a comparative manner. Mechanical properties like wear performance and tensile properties are evaluated. The morphological changes due to cryo-treatment are investigated using scanning electron microscopy. Structural characterization by X-ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy revealed the change in % crystallinity, which is found to be the most important parameter responsible for enhancement of wear performance. In a similar way, thermal changes are also studied by using differential scanning calorimeter. Experimental data is evaluated for the polymer with improved structural, mechanical and thermal properties in order to get optimized parameters for the cryo-treatment.