Recent Advances in Tribological Properties of Silicon Based Nanofillers Incorporated Polymer Nanocomposites

Over the last few decades, the demand for the development of polymer nanocomposites is increasing due to their excellent properties of mechanical, thermal, electrical, tribological properties and so on. The diversity of polymer nanocomposites with enhanced performances makes them suitable for a wide variety of applications such as automobile, aerospace, electrical, electronics, construction etc. The effect of various types of nanofillers such as metal-based nanofiller, carbon-based nanofiller, and silicon-based nanofiller incorporated into polymers are widely investigated by various researchers. Silicon-based nanofiller-reinforced polymer nanocomposites are prospective in recent years on tribological applications such as plastic gears, bushes, bearings, etc. A large number of different studies have demonstrated the various excellent properties of silicon-based nanofillers and hybrid nanofillers into polymer nanocomposites, however, limited reviews are being published on the effect of silicon-based nanofillers and hybrid nanofillers reinforced polymer nanocomposites. Therefore, this manuscript aims to review the recent advances on the effect of silicon-based nanofillers and hybrid nanofillers incorporated polymer nanocomposites emphasizing mainly the tribological properties. This work presents the outline of the main outcome from various studies focusing mainly on the effect of silicon-based nanofiller on friction, wear resistance and wear mechanism-related tribological properties. This work also intended to review the effect of silicon-based hybrid nanofillers into polymer nanocomposites on tribological properties. Finally, the challenges and future perspectives of silicon-based nanofillers reinforced polymer nanocomposites on the tribological properties are also discussed.