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Rippling on Wear Scar Surfaces of Nanocrystalline Diamond Films After Reciprocating Sliding Against Ceramic Balls

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Abstract

The formation of nanoscopic ripple patterns on top of material surfaces has been reported for different materials and processes, such as sliding against polymers, high-force scanning in atomic force microscopy (AFM), and surface treatment by ion beam sputtering. In this work, we show that such periodic ripples can also be obtained in prolonged reciprocating sliding against nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) films. NCD films with a thickness of 0.8 µm were grown on top of silicon wafer substrates by hot-filament chemical vapor deposition using a mixture of methane and hydrogen. The chemical structure, surface morphology, and surface wear were characterized by Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and AFM. The tribological properties of the NCD films were evaluated by reciprocating sliding tests against Al2O3, Si3N4, and ZrO2 counter balls. Independent of the counter body material, clear ripple patterns with typical heights of about 30 nm induced during the sliding test are observed by means of AFM and SEM on the NCD wear scar surfaces. Although the underlying mechanisms of ripple formation are not yet fully understood, these surface corrugations could be attributed to the different wear phenomena, including a stress-induced micro-fracture and plastic deformation, a surface smoothening, and a surface rehybridization from diamond bonding to an sp 2 configuration. The similarity between ripples observed in the present study and ripples reported after repeated AFM tip scanning indicates that ripple formation is a rather universal phenomenon occurring in moving tribological contacts of different materials.

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Acknowledgments

The work was supported by the Estonian Science Foundation Grant Number 8696. J.G.B. would like to thank the Executive Research Agency of the European Union for funding under the Marie Curie IEF Grant Number 272448.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Engineering, Tallinn University of Technology, 19086, Tallinn, Estonia

    V. Podgursky, A. Bogatov, E. Kimmari, M. Antonov & P. Kulu

  2. IMEC, 3001, Louvain, Belgium

    T. Hantschel, M. Tsigkourakos & W. Vandervorst

  3. Instituut voor Kern- en Stralingsfysica, KU Leuven, Louvain, Belgium

    M. Tsigkourakos & W. Vandervorst

  4. Department of Materials Engineering, KU Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 44, 3001, Louvain, Belgium

    J. G. Buijnsters

  5. Center of Materials Research, Tallinn University of Technology, Ehiatajate tee 5, 19086, Tallinn, Estonia

    M. Viljus & V. Mikli

  6. Department of Materials Science, Tallinn University of Technology, Ehiatajate tee 5, 19086, Tallinn, Estonia

    A. T. Raadik

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  1. V. Podgursky
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Correspondence to V. Podgursky.

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Podgursky, V., Hantschel, T., Bogatov, A. et al. Rippling on Wear Scar Surfaces of Nanocrystalline Diamond Films After Reciprocating Sliding Against Ceramic Balls. Tribol Lett 55, 493–501 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11249-014-0379-z

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