The mass contents of Fe and Cr in brake pads were positively correlated with the brake wear factor, disc wear factor, PM
10, and PM
2.5. Fe and Cr in brake pads are mainly derived from steel alloys, mainly used as reinforcement [
15,
16,
27]. In the present study, the pads contained 0.1–10.3% Fe and 0–1.5% Cr, respectively. Steel fibers have high strength, modulus of elasticity, and thermal stability, but they are known to increase wear [
6,
24,
25,
26,
29] due to accelerated plowing of the counter material (disc) surface [
15,
16,
27]. Primary and secondary contact plateaus are formed at the brake friction interface [
4]. The primary contact plateau is composed of wear-resistant components of the pad (e.g., steel fibers and ceramic particles), and it forms the nucleus for the secondary contact plateau, which is formed by the compression of particles that have been stripped in front of the primary contact plateau. The use of steel fibers forms the primary contact plate [
61,
62], and increasing their content increases contact wear [
32,
63,
64]. Pyrite (iron sulfide, FeS
2) and magnetite (Fe
2O
3) are also present as Fe in the pad, which increases the coefficient of friction, increases brake wear factors, helps remove iron oxides and other undesirable surface coatings from the mating disc surface during braking, improves vehicle braking effectiveness, and acts as an abrasive agent [
15,
16,
27]. Magnetite (Fe
2O
3) acts as a solid lubricant, maintaining the coefficient of friction during braking (especially at high temperatures), protecting the mating disc surface from excessive wear, and reducing vibration and noise [
15,
16,
27]. In metal-to-metal wear, when the oxygen diffusion coefficient of the supplied metal oxide particles was high relative to the oxygen diffusion coefficient, the formation rate of the friction film occurred faster because of the faster sintering rate of the particles, and a negative correlation was observed for the amount of wear [
31]. On the other hand, when metal oxide particles were mixed with phenolic resin and worn on the pad and disk, the amount of wear correlated with the oxygen diffusion coefficient [
60], and the trends were not consistent. The amount of wear differed greatly between Fe
2O
3 and Fe
3O
4, and the amount of wear was higher when Fe
3O
4 was added, indicating that Fe
3O
4 changes to the “homogeneous metal Fe” when reduced and shows high cohesion with the disc material [
33]. This high cohesion between the homogeneous metals significantly increases the wear of the pad material [
33]. As the results of previous studies have indicated, the increase in wear and PM emissions with Fe content (positive correlation) cannot be explained in a monolithic manner, but the results of this study suggest that the increase in steel fiber leads to the positive correlation.