The Impacts of Adhesion on the Wear Property of Graphene

Abstract

AbstractAdhesion plays an important role in the antiwear property of graphene layer on a substrate. Here the wear property of the inner region of monolayer graphene grown on copper foils via chemical vapor deposition is studied. The adhesive strength is controlled by changing the oxidation of the copper substrate into two oxidation degrees with intact graphene preserved. For graphene layers on copper substrates with either low oxidation degree (LOD) or high oxidation degree (HOD), it is found in both systems wear starts at the wrinkle position under similar normal force. However, with the development of wear, for the LOD substrate the covering graphene layer is worn out gradually, while for the HOD substrate the graphene layer is peeled off rapidly. By measuring the adhesion between graphene and substrates indirectly, together with finite element analysis, it is shown that the underlying mechanism for the different wear phenomena is due to the higher adhesion between graphene and LOD substrates than that between graphene and HOD substrates. This study provides insights on the impacts of adhesion between monolayer material and substrates on the antiwear properties, which can benefit the design of lubrication coatings based on layered materials.