Abstract
Diamond-like carbon (DLC) film has been developed as an extremely effective lubricant to reduce energy dissipation; however, most films should undergo running-in to achieve a super-low friction state. In this study, the running-in behaviors of an H-DLC/Al2O3 pair were investigated through a controllable single-asperity contact study using an atomic force microscope. This study presents direct evidence that illustrates the role of transfer layer formation and oxide layer removal in the friction reduction during running-in. After 200 sliding cycles, a thin transfer layer was formed on the Al2O3 tip. Compared with a clean tip, this modified tip showed a significantly lower adhesion force and friction force on the original H-DLC film, which confirmed the contribution of the transfer layer formation in the friction reduction during running-in. It was also found that the friction coefficient of the H-DLC/Al2O3 pair decreased linearly as the oxygen concentration of the H-DLC substrate surface decreased. This phenomenon can be explained by a change in the contact surface from an oxygen termination with strong hydrogen bond interactions to a hydrogen termination with weak van der Waals interactions. These results provide new insights that quantitatively reveal the running-in mechanism at the nanoscale, which may help with the design optimization of DLC films for different environmental applications.
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The authors are grateful for the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51875486 and 51991373) and Sichuan Science and Technology Program (2019YFH0098).
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Pengfei SHI. He received his Ph.D. degree from the School of Mechanical Engineering at Southwest Jiaotong University (SWJTU), China. His research interests include solid lubricating and micro-/nano-tribology.
Lei CHEN. He is an associate professor of mechanical engineering at SWJTU in China. He received his Ph.D. degree from SWJTU in 2013. He acted as a visiting scholar at The Pennsylvania State University (PSU) from 2016 to 2017. His current research interests focus on micro-/nano-tribology and nanofabrication. He has authorized 7 patents and published 58 peer-reviewed journal papers, including in Nature Communications and P. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. He is a guest associate editor of the journal of Frontiers in Chemistry. He can be reached at chenlei@swjtu.edu.cn.
Linmao QIAN. He is a professor of mechanical engineering at SWJTU. He received his B.S. (1994) and Ph.D. (2000) degree in mechanical engineering from Tsinghua University in China. After two years at Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris and one year at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology as a postdoctoral researcher, he joined the Southwest Jiaotong University in 2002. His research interests include ultra-precision surface manufacturing, nanofabrication, and application nanotribology, and biotribology. He has published more than 180 peer-reviewed journal papers and authorized more than 20 patents. He is a member of the editorial board of four journals, such as Friction, ISRN Tribology, Frontiers of Mechanical Engineering, and Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part J: Journal of Engineering Tribology. He can be reached at linmao@swjtu.edu.cn.
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Shi, P., Sun, J., Liu, Y. et al. Running-in behavior of a H-DLC/Al2O3 pair at the nanoscale. Friction 9, 1464–1473 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40544-020-0429-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40544-020-0429-5