Lubricating effect of graphene during ultra-precision mechanical polishing by atomic scale simulation

Abstract

As a new two-dimensional material with unique friction and wear properties, graphene often serves as a solid lubricant. In order to better understand the lubrication effect of graphene in the process of three-body polishing of single crystal silicon with diamond abrasive, a molecular dynamics model of this process was established in this study. Further, the changes of coordination number, friction coefficient, temperature, potential energy, stress, and surface/subsurface damage in the process of three-body polishing were analyzed in detail. The results showed that graphene lubrication could enhance the heat dissipation and reduce the number of defect atoms, friction coefficient, potential energy, stress, and chips. Therefore, less subsurface damage and material resistance were observed in the workpiece with graphene lubrication during machining. In general, graphene can be used as a high-quality solid lubricant in the three-body polishing of single crystal silicon using diamond abrasive because of its excellent lubricating effect.

Atomistic study on the effect of the size of diamond abrasive particle during polishing of stainless steel

“…As far as abrasive material is concerned, diamond comes in top list due to it hardness, thermal conductivity, sharpness, etc. In order to understand the effect of diamond abrasive for polishing, a three-body mechanism of polishing on silicon with diamond abrasive was investigated using a molecular dynamics simulation [13]. In this study, graphene lubrication enhances the heat dissipation and helps to reduce surface defects and subsurface damage Mechanical polishing on stainless steel with diamond abrasive was investigated through molecular dynamics simulation, and it is observed that the finishing force and velocity damage the diamond abrasive by altering its phase from diamond cubic to graphite [14].…”