Abstract
Diamond-like carbon (DLC) exhibits excellent wear and friction characteristics. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) has been used to investigate the substructures of as-deposited DLC and DLC debris after wear testing. The as-deposited DLC was found to consist of a dense, three-dimensional network structure with a medium range order (<3 nm) present. Diffraction pattern analysis showed that DLC was mainly amorphous. Two diffuse diffraction rings with d111=0.21 nm and d220=0.12 nm were observed, suggesting the presence of a short-range cubic diamond structure (sp3). Morphologically, the wear debris was found to be a discontinuous segregation of carbon particles ranging from nano- to micro-size. Diffraction pattern analysis showed that the debris consisted of graphite (sp2) and distorted DLC (sp3). A wear mechanism has been proposed based on the transformation of DLC to graphite. The transformation is related to the frictional energy and includes two stages: hydrogen release from the structure causing lattice relaxation and shear deformation of the DLC structure producing graphite.
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LIU, Y., MELETIS, E.I. Evidence of graphitization of diamond-like carbon films during sliding wear. Journal of Materials Science 32, 3491–3495 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1018641304944
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1018641304944