Tribological and electrical properties of C/C composites with bacterial cellulose

Abstract

Bacterial cellulose (BC) synthesized by Acetobacter xylinum is one of the nano fiber materials. In this paper, the aggregation and dispersion behavior of C/C composite made with the BC and copper powders as a third constituent were considered. It is found that BC microfibril network can set copper powders into fine dispersion in the mBC-C/C composite. The tribological and electrical properties of Cu/mBC-C/C composite containing copper powder were also evaluated. From the experimental results, the mean value of the specific wear amount was at 10^-9 order, the dynamic friction coefficient was about 0.2 and the electrical resistivity was at 10^-4 order. Furthermore, the wear properties got worse due to the large amount of copper powder and the improvement in electrical conductivity was not enough. It is considered that it is necessary to find the optimum content of copper powder for the improvement of electrical conductivity in order to use for the conduction/friction material, for instance, brush for the DC motor.