Tribological Properties of Surface-Textured and Plasma-Nitrided Pure Titanium Under Oil Lubrication Condition

Abstract

Plasma nitriding was conducted as post-treatment for surface texture on pure titanium to obtain a continuous nitriding layer. Supersonic fine particles bombarding (SFPB) was carried out to prepare surface texture. The surface morphologies and chemical composition were analyzed using scanning electron microscope and energy disperse spectroscopy. The microstructures of modified layers were characterized by transmission electron microscope. The tribological properties of surface-textured and duplex-treated pure titanium under oil lubrication condition were systematically investigated in the ball-on-plate reciprocating mode. The effects of applied load and sliding velocity on the tribological behavior were analyzed. The results show that after duplex treatments, the grains size in modified layer becomes slightly larger, and hardness is obviously improved. Wear resistance of duplex-treated pure titanium is significantly improved referenced to untreated and surface-textured pure titanium, which is 3.22 times as much as untreated pure titanium and 2.15 times of that for surface-textured pure titanium, respectively.