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Materials Phenomena Revealed by In Situ Tribometry

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Abstract

In situ tribometry, the study of real-time friction and wear processes occurring at “buried” sliding interfaces, was used to examine fundamental changes to structure and chemistry of solid lubricant and hard coatings. In situ techniques of optical microscopy and Raman spectroscopy were used to observe interfacial sliding dynamics and identify near-surface structural/chemical changes, respectively. Third-body physical and chemical processes, such as thickening, thinning, loss of transfer films, generation of wear debris, and sliding-induced chemical changes, were identified for sapphire sliding against Ti-Si-C, nanocrystalline diamond (NCD), and titanium- and tungsten-doped diamond-like carbon (DLC) coatings. These processes observed by in situ methods were also used to explain why friction and wear behavior changed with coating composition, properties or test conditions.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge helpful discussions with Drs. Irwin Singer and Kathryn Wahl from the Naval Research Laboratory. H.W.S. acknowledges assistance from Aleks Labuda, Arunava Deb, and Michel Stephan in constructing the in situ tribometer at McGill University and writing of control and analysis software. We also thank Gary Doll and Ryan Evans at The Timken Company for depositing the Ti- and W-doped DLC coatings, Salim Hassani and Jolanta Klemberg-Sapieha at École Polytechnique de Montréal for depositing the Ti–Si–C–H coatings, and A. Leigh Winfrey and Robert Nemanich for depositing the nanocrystalline diamond coatings. T.W.S. acknowledges the Donors of the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund for partial support under Award # 46915-G5 and the National Science Foundation (Grant No. CMMI-0700828). R.R.C. acknowledges support from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI), Leader’s Opportunity Fund, Project #13029, and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Discovery Grant Program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mining and Materials Engineering, McGill University, Montreal, QC, H3A 2B2, Canada

    R. R. Chromik & H. W. Strauss

  2. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The University of North Texas, Denton, TX, 76203, USA

    T. W. Scharf

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  1. R. R. Chromik
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  2. H. W. Strauss
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  3. T. W. Scharf
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Correspondence to R. R. Chromik or T. W. Scharf.

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Chromik, R.R., Strauss, H.W. & Scharf, T.W. Materials Phenomena Revealed by In Situ Tribometry. JOM 64, 35–43 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11837-011-0229-5

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