High-speed electrical sliding wear behaviors of Cu-WS2-graphite-WS2 nanotubes composite

Abstract

Abstract Cu-WS2-graphite-WS2 nanotubes composite was fabricated by the powder metallurgy hot-pressed method. The effects of electrical current (5–15 A/cm2) and sliding velocity (5–15 m/s) on the electrical wear behaviors of the composite were investigated using a block-on-slip ring wear tester rubbing against Cu-5 wt% Ag alloy ring under 2.5 N/cm2 of applied load. The lubricating effect of WS2 nanotubes and composition of tribo-film were analyzed. The results demonstrated that the contact resistance decreases but the wear rate increases as electrical current increases, because the adverse effects of electrical current soften the materials at “a-spots” and damage the tribo-film. Due to the adsorption of gaseous molecule film on the tangential direction of slip ring surface, with the rise of sliding velocity, the contact resistance increases while the wear rate reaches the minimum at a sliding velocity of 10 m/s. The reasonable addition of WS2 nanotubes into the Cu-WS2-graphite composite to replace WS2 powder can result in a reduction of both contact resistance and wear rate. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analyses revealed that copper oxides, graphite, WS2 and WS2 nanotubes in the tribo-film play the main lubrication action at the tribo-interface.