Novel method for in-situ and simultaneous nanofriction and nanowear characterization of materials

Abstract

Nowadays there is an increased need to know the nanotribological properties of protective coatings used in part devices operating under nano-and micro-contact situations, e.g. hard disk drives, magnetic heads, micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS)

Nanotribological behavior of deep cryogenically treated martensitic stainless steel

“…The experimental setup followed the guidelines of the test procedure proposed by Broitman and Flores [13]. In this method, a probe is continuously scanning a track in a reciprocal movement, as shown in Fig.…”

“…The processes (c) and (d) are repeated ten times. Reprinted with permission from [13], copyright 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.…”

“…Nanotribological tests, such as the nanoscratch technique described in [13], can be used for studying the influence of microstructural features on the frictional and wear behavior of a material, thanks to the small size of the tip counterpart, and applied loads in the order of micronewtons. A nanotribological approach is necessary, as most engineering surfaces begin to contact at the tip of asperities, whose dimensions are at the nanometric scale.…”

Micro-tribological performance of fullerene-like carbon and carbon-nitride surfaces

“…In this work, we investigate the wear mechanisms acting during a linear reciprocating experiment at the microscale on amorphous and FL films of carbon and carbon nitride deposited by the filtered cathodic arc method. A method for simultaneous in-situ measurement of the wear and friction evolution, previously reported by some of the authors [24], was employed to allow for a quantitative comparison between the FL and amorphous structures of the carbon and carbon nitride films. The results show that both, tribomechanical (i.e., re-hybridization [17]) and tribochemical (i.e., surface passivation phenomena [23]) mechanisms, occurred depending on material's microstructure (amorphous or FL) and mechanical properties.…”

“…The applied load during the wear-friction experiment was 5 mN, which corresponds to an initial mean Hertzian contact pressure of between 4 and 11 GPa depending on the elastic modulus of each sample (see Table 1). The microtribological measurements were carried out by using the method for simultaneous in-situ friction and wear characterization [24]. The instrument head of the Triboindenter is a three-plate capacitive transducer that works as both actuator and sensor, allowing access to topographical information of less than one nanometer with a high load precision [27].…”