3D morphologies of wear tracks: a wear track in ambient air and b wear track in water

Researchers at the State Key Laboratory of Solid Lubrication of the Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics (LICP) of the CAS have successfully fabricated graphite-like carbon (GLC) nanocomposite films by DC magnetron sputtering using high pure graphite target at ambient temperature. They found that the as-deposited nanocomposite GLC film exhibited excellent self-adapted tribological properties in different environments of ambient air, different relative humidity and water. The friction coefficients were 0.053 in ambient air and 0.046 in distilled water, while specific wear rates were 4.5×10-16m3N-1 m-1 and 1.6×10-16 m3 N-1 m-1, respectively.

Diamond-like carbon (DLC) films have caught much attention owing to their industrial applications. However, the true DLC films are very hard with high internal stresses and unsuitable for highly loaded applications. In order to reduce the internal stresses, the DLC films were doped with various metals. The weakness of the high wear rates at a high relative humidity has not been solved. This leads to the limitation to the wide use of DLC films in humidity environment, especially in water hydraulic systems.

Hopefully, the film can have great potential in protecting and solid lubricating material in ambient humidity and water environment.

The work has received support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and High Technology Research and Development Program of China.

The findings have been published in Tribol. Lett. (Tribol. Lett. (2010) 40:301–310).

Tribol. Lett. Paper