Chufeng Sun

Tribological Behavior of Multiply-Alkylated Cyclopentanes (MACs)-Cu Nanoparticles Composite Thin Film

Multiply-alkylated cyclopentanes (MACs) composite thin films containing Cu nanoparticles are fabricated on the octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS)-modified substrate by a spin-coating technique. The thickness, wetting behavior, and nanoscale morphologies of the films are characterized by means of ellipsometry, contact angle measurement, and atomic force microscope (AFM). The friction and wear behaviors of the thin films sliding against Si3N4 ball are examined on a UMT-2MT tribometer in a ball-on-disk contact mode. The worn surfaces of the OTS-MAC-Cu composite film and the counterpart Si3N4 balls are investigated with a scanning electron microscope. Water contact angle on OTS-MAC-Cu composite film is higher than that of OTS-MAC film. OTS-MAC-Cu composite film exhibits higher load-carrying capacity and better friction reduction and antiwear behavior as compared with OTS-MAC film. This may be attributed to the load-carrying and self-repairing property of the Cu nanoparticles in the composite film and the formation of a transfer layer composed of OTS, MAC, and Cu on the rubbing surface of the counterpart ball.

The Tribological Property and Microstructure of Ni-Ti Coating Prepared by Electrodeposition and Heat Treatment

Ni-Ti coatings were fabricated by the electrodeposition in a Ni plating bath containing Ti power and heat treatment in nitrogen atmosphere. The surface morphology and microstructure of the Ni-Ti coating before and after heat treatment were analyzed by means of scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. The friction and wear behaviors of two different coatings were evaluated on a ball-on-disk UMT-2MT test rig. It was found that the phase structure of Ni-Ti coating heated in nitrogen was much different from that of the as-deposited Ni-Ti coating. Namely, the new intermetallic compounds, including Ni3Ti, NiTi, and NiTi2, and TiN were detected in the coating after heat treatment by the XRD analysis and contributed to greatly increasing the hardness and tribological property of the Ni-Ti coating, owing to the strengthening effect of the hard intermetallic compounds and TiN phase. At the same time, a small amount of intermetallic compounds and TiN was transferred from the composite coating to the rubbing surface of the counterpart steel ball during the sliding, which also contributed to decreasing the friction coefficient and increasing the wear resistance.

Tribological Properties of MACs-APS Films

Multiply-alkylated cyclopentanes (MACs) with different molecular structure were deposited on single crystal silicon wafers coated with a thin aminopropyltrimethoxylsilane (APS) film as an adhesive layer to form MACs-APS films. The thickness, wetting behavior and nano-scale morphologies of the films were characterized by means of ellipsometry, contact angle measurement, and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The friction and wear behaviors of the thin films sliding against a Si3N4 ball were examined on a UMT-2MT tribometer in a ball-on-disk contact mode. The worn surfaces of the MACs-APS films and the counterpart Si3N4 balls were investigated with a scanning electron microscope (SEM). It was found that the water contact angles on the MACs-APS film increased with the MACs alkyl chain-length. The MACs-APS film exhibited higher load-carrying capacity and better friction reduction and anti-wear behavior as compared with the APS film. This is suggested to occur because the APS acts as a strongly bonded lubricant phase and MACs as a mobile lubricant phase in the MACs-APS film. The increase of the chain-length of the alkyl substituent in the MACs compounds resulted in improved tribological properties of MACs-APS film. It is suggested that the longer alkyl chains are much more flexible and can dissipate the mechanical energy during the shearing process more easily than the short chain compounds. MACs with the longer chains have stronger chain-chain interactions and the larger MAC molecules have stronger intermolecular interactions, resulting in the good tribological properties of MACs-APS film.