Abstract
This work shows that a soft, thin film comprising randomly aligned carbon nanotubes (CNTs) can reduce surface wear more effectively than a homogeneous thin film because of enhanced elastic recoverability and contact stress relief originating from its mesh structure. To investigate the wear characteristics of the mesh structure compared to those of the homogeneous thin film, multi-walled CNTs (MWCNTs) and diamond-like carbon (DLC) thin films were prepared to conduct nanoscale tribological experiments using the atomic force microscopy (AFM). The MWCNT thin film showed unmeasurably low wear compared with the DLC thin film under a certain range of normal load. To demonstrate the wear reduction mechanism of the MWCNT thin film, its indentation and frictional behaviors were assessed. The indentation behavior of the MWCNT thin film revealed repetitive elastic deformation with a wide strain range and a significantly lower elastic modulus than that of the DLC thin film. The permanent deformation of the MWCNT thin film was observed through frictional experiments under relatively high normal load conditions. These results are expected to provide insights into the design of highly wear-resistant surfaces using nanostructures.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean government (MSIT) (No. 2020R1A2C2004714). This work was also supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (No. 2021R1I1A3060608).
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Kuk-Jin SEO. He received his B.S. degree in Department of Mechanical Engineering from Yonsei University, Seoul, Republic of Korea, in 2014. Currently, he is a Ph.D. candidate at Yonsei University, Seoul, Republic of Korea. His research interests include wear-resistant nanostructured and multi-layered coatings via experimental and computational techniques.
Hyun-Joon KIM. He is an associate professor at Department of Precision Mechanical Engineering at Kyungpook National University, Sangju, Republic of Korea. He received his B.S and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering from Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea, in 2005 and 2012, respectively. Prof. KIM serves in the editorial board of Tribology and Lubricants and Frontiers in mechanical engineering. His current interests are the AFM-based nano-mechanics, micro-nano tribology, numerical analysis of tribological behavior, and molecular dynamics simulation.
Dae-Eun KIM. He is a professor at Department of Mechanical Engineering at Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea. He received his B.S. degree from Tufts University, Medford, USA, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA. Currently, He is a fellow of the Korean Academy of Science and Technology and CIRP. Dr. Kim is also the vice president of Asia Tribology Council and Chair of IFToMM Member Organization for Korea. Dr. Kim serves in the editorial board of several journals including Tribology Letters and Friction. His research interests are tribology, coatings, and micro-fabrication.
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Seo, KJ., Kim, HJ. & Kim, DE. Feasibility of wear reduction for soft nanostructured thin film through enhanced elastic recoverability and contact stress relief. Friction 11, 1292–1306 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40544-022-0669-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40544-022-0669-7