Friction and wear behavior of fine-grained diamond (FGD) films were investigated in the
ambient air, deionized water and paraffin oil lubricating environment. The FGD films were deposited
on WC substrates using HFCVD method and the tribologcial tests were conducted in a ball-on-plate
type reciprocating friction tester where the mating balls were made of ball-bearing steel. Scanning
electron microscopy (SEM), surface profilometer and Raman spectrascropy were used to study the
characterizations of the deposited FGD films, and after sliding tests, the worn areas on both mating
balls and FGD films were investigated and the wear debris layer adhered to the friction area of FGD
films were analyzed with EDX. The experiment results suggested that FGD films exhibited steady
friction coefficient as about 0.25 in water, lower than that in open air, which is up to 0.40; but the
mating ball in water suffered much severer wear lost and its specific wear rate was more than two
times higher than that in air, up to 3.6E-4 mm3N-1m-1. As while, a thick and compact layer of wear
debris was observed on the worn area of FGD films sliding with water lubrication while only little
debris existed in the diamond grain boundaries, which might dominate the friction process and
attribute to the lower friction coefficient and higher specific wear rate in water environment. In oil
environment, furthermore, both the friction coefficient and specific wear rate reached minimum value
as low as 0.1 and 1.1E-4 mm3N-1m-1, no observable wear scar could be measured on the sliding
surface of the FGD film.