Abstract
As a kind of self-lubricating material, diamond-like carbon (DLC) film is famous for its excellent tribological properties. Superlubricity state with nearly-vanishing friction achieved with DLC film has enormous potential applications in future mechanical systems. It is pointed out that its superlubricity state is highly related to both the inherent properties of the DLC film and external sliding conditions. Moreover, the underlying mechanisms of the superlubricity are complicated, posing uncertainties on their engineering application. This review provides an overview of the influence factors, including film composition, ambient, temperature, normal load and sliding velocity and their correlations with the anti-friction behaviors of DLC films. These understandings will enable a more effective engineering application of self-lubricating carbon films with excellent tribological properties.
Highlights
Friction is one of the decisive factors affecting the efficiency and service life of a mechanical system
These results indicate that amorphous carbon (aC):H films are capable of achieving stable superlubricity under dry inert atmosphere, vacuum and hydrogen, and the underling mechanism is closely related to friction-induced structural transformation of the contact area and tribo-chemical interaction between the sliding surfaces
The influencing factors and the mechanisms of superlubricity achieved with amorphous carbon (a-C):H films are multifaceted and interrelated
Summary
Friction is one of the decisive factors affecting the efficiency and service life of a mechanical system. Mechanisms of DLC Superlubricity films (Miura et al, 2005), carbon nanotubes (Zhang et al, 2013), graphite or graphene, ultra-nanocrystalline diamond (Kumar et al, 2011), onion-like/fullerene-like carbon (Gong et al, 2017), and diamond-like carbon (Erdemir and Eryilmaz, 2014) Most of these superlubricity behaviors are based on the incommensurable contact of the ultra-smooth crystalline surfaces, which is still far from being applicable for engineering due to the diversified interferences in macroscopic tribo-systems. These results indicate that aC:H films are capable of achieving stable superlubricity under dry inert atmosphere, vacuum and hydrogen, and the underling mechanism is closely related to friction-induced structural transformation of the contact area and tribo-chemical interaction between the sliding surfaces. A review of superlubricity of DLC is provided in the perspective
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
