Abstract
Engineering in vacuum or under a protective atmosphere permits the production of materials, wherever the absence of oxygen is an essential demand for a successful processing. However, very few studies have provided quantitative evidence of the effect of oxidized surfaces to tribological properties. In the current study on 99.99% pure copper, it is revealed that tribo-oxidation and the resulting increased abrasive wear can be suppressed by processing in an extreme high vacuum (XHV) adequate environment. The XHV adequate atmosphere was realized by using a silane-doped shielding gas (1.5 vol% SiH4 in argon). To analyse the influence of the ambient atmosphere on the tribological and mechanical properties, a ball—disk tribometer and a nanoindenter were used in air, argon, and silane-doped argon atmosphere for temperatures up to 800 °C. Resistance measurements of the resulting coatings were carried out. To characterize the microstructures and the chemical compositions of the samples, the scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were used. The investigations have revealed a formation of η-Cu3Si in silane-doped atmosphere at 300 °C, as well as various intermediate stages of copper silicides. At temperatures above 300 °C, the formation of γ-Cu5Si were detected. The formation was linked to an increase in hardness from 1.95 to 5.44 GPa, while the Young’s modulus increased by 46% to 178 GPa, with the significant reduction of the wear volume by a factor of 4.5 and the suppression of further oxidation and susceptibility of chemical wear. In addition, the relevant diffusion processes were identified using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations.
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Acknowledgements
The project was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) (No. 394563137—SFB 1368). Hoang-Thien LUU and Nina MERKERT gratefully acknowledge for the support from the Simulation Science Center Clausthal/Göttingen. The computations were performed with resources provided by the North-German Supercomputing Alliance (HLRN).
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Selina RAUMEL. She received her bachelor’s (2015) and master’s degrees (2017) from University of Applied Sciences Kiel, Germany. In 2017, she started as a Ph.D. student at the Institute of Micro Production Technology (IMPT) at Leibniz Universität Hannover, Germany. Her research interests include microtribology and the mechanical and tribological analysis of thin films.
Khemais BARIENTI. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in materials engineering from RWTH Aachen University, Germany, in 2014 and 2017, respectively. He then joined the Institute of Materials Science at Leibniz Universität Hannover, Germany, as a Ph.D. student. His research interests include cold roll bonding of sheet metal and XRD analysis.
Hoang-Thien LUU. He has achieved his Ph.D. degree from TU Clausthal, Germany, in 2022. Micromechanical and scale-bridging modeling of plastic deformation, crystal plasticity methods and parameter identification, and metal wear are areas of study interest for him.
Nina MERKERT (Née GUNKELMANN). She has been awarded a doctor of natural sciences. at TU Kaiserslautern, Germany. She is a junior professor for computational material sciences/engineering at TU Clausthal, Germany. Her fields of interest include molecular dynamics simulations and discrete element simulations of heterogeneous materials, as well as characterization of dislocation structures and plasticity utilizing multiscale techniques.
Folke DENCKER. He is a lecturer and researcher of nanotechnology at Leibniz University of Hannover at the Institute of Microproduction Technology (IMPT), Germany. With his background in tribology and sensor development, his principal research objective is the data acquisition in harsh environments.
Florian NÜRNBERGER. He received his Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering from Leibniz Universität Hannover, Germany, in 2010. He then joined the Institute of Materials Science at Leibniz Universität Hannover, Germany. He is a senior researcher and his research areas include the heat treatment of metals, tailored forming technologies, and microstructure analysis.
Hans Jürgen MAIER. He received his Ph.D. degree in engineering from FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany, in 1990. He was then a professor at University of Paderborn, Germany. Since 2012, he has been a professor at Leibniz Universität Hannover, Germany, and director of the Institute of Materials Science, Germany. His research areas are process—microstructure—property relationships, investigation of mechanical properties and modern metal alloys.
Marc Christopher WURZ. He received his bachelor’s degree at Leibniz Universität Hannover, Germany, in 2002. In 2003, he started his Ph.D. at the Institute of Micro Production Technology (IMPT) of the Leibniz Universität Hannover, Germany, and finished his thesis in 2009. Since October 2022, he is the director of IMPT. His research activities include magnetic sensors and actuators, new techniques for integrated circuits, and the application of microsystems in tools including new process technologies for microsystems. He has published his results in more than 150 publications. In addition, he has filed more than 20 patent applications.
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Raumel, S., Barienti, K., Luu, HT. et al. Characterization of the tribologically relevant cover layers formed on copper in oxygen and oxygen-free conditions. Friction 11, 1505–1521 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40544-022-0695-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40544-022-0695-5