Tribological Performance of High-Entropy Coatings (HECs): A Review.

Surface coatings that operate effectively at elevated temperatures provide compatibility with critical service conditions as well as improved tribological performance of the components. High-entropy coatings (HECs), including metallic, ceramics, and composites, have gained attention all over the world and developed rapidly over the past 18 years, due to their excellent mechanical and tribological properties. High-entropy alloys (HEAs) are defined as alloys containing five or more principal elements in equal or close to equal atomic percentage. Owing to the high configurational entropy compared to conventional alloys, HEAs are usually composed of a simple solid solution phase, such as the BCC and FCC phases, instead of complex, brittle intermetallic phases. Several researchers have investigated the mechanical, oxidation, corrosion and wear properties of high-entropy oxides, carbides, borides, and silicates using various coating and testing techniques. More recently, the friction and wear characteristics of high-entropy coatings (HECs) have gained interest within various industrial sectors, mainly due to their favourable mechanical and tribological properties at high temperatures. In this review article, the authors identified the research studies and developments in high-entropy coatings (HECs) fabricated on various substrate materials using different synthesis methods. In addition, the current understanding of the HECs characteristics is critically reviewed, including the fabrication routes of targets/feedstock, synthesis methods utilized in various research studies, microstructural and tribological behaviour from room temperature to high temperatures.

Achieving Ultra-Low Friction with Diamond/Metal Systems in Extreme Environments.

In the search for achieving ultra-low friction for applications in extreme environments, we evaluate the interfacial processes of diamond/tungsten sliding contacts using an on-line macro-tribometer and a micro-tribometer in an ultra-high vacuum. The coefficient of friction for the tests with the on-line tribometer remained considerably low for unlubricated sliding of tungsten, which correlated well with the relatively low wear rates and low roughness on the wear track throughout the sliding. Ex situ analysis was performed by means of XPS and SEM-FIB in order to better understand the underlying mechanisms of low friction and low-wear sliding. The analysis did not reveal any evidence of tribofilm or transferfilm formation on the counterface, indicating the absence of significant bonding between the diamond and tungsten surfaces, which correlated well with the low-friction values. The minimal adhesive interaction and material transfer can possibly be explained by the low initial roughness values as well as high cohesive bonding energies of the two materials. The appearance of the wear track as well as the relatively higher roughness perpendicular to the sliding indicated that abrasion was the main wear mechanism. In order to elucidate the low friction of this tribocouple, we performed micro-tribological experiments in ultra-high vacuum conditions. The results show that the friction coefficient was reduced significantly in UHV. In addition, subsequently to baking the chamber, the coefficient of friction approached ultra-low values. Based on the results obtained in this study, the diamond/tungsten tribocouple seems promising for tribological interfaces in spacecraft systems, which can improve the durability of the components.

Scaling Effects on Materials Tribology: From Macro to Micro Scale.

The tribological study of materials inherently involves the interaction of surface asperities at the micro to nanoscopic length scales. This is the case for large scale engineering applications with sliding contacts, where the real area of contact is made up of small contacting asperities that make up only a fraction of the apparent area of contact. This is why researchers have sought to create idealized experiments of single asperity contacts in the field of nanotribology. At the same time, small scale engineering structures known as micro- and nano-electromechanical systems (MEMS and NEMS) have been developed, where the apparent area of contact approaches the length scale of the asperities, meaning the real area of contact for these devices may be only a few asperities. This is essentially the field of microtribology, where the contact size and/or forces involved have pushed the nature of the interaction between two surfaces towards the regime where the scale of the interaction approaches that of the natural length scale of the features on the surface. This paper provides a review of microtribology with the purpose to understand how tribological processes are different at the smaller length scales compared to macrotribology. Studies of the interfacial phenomena at the macroscopic length scales (e.g., using in situ tribometry) will be discussed and correlated with new findings and methodologies at the micro-length scale.

Surface softening in metal-ceramic sliding contacts: an experimental and numerical investigation.

This study investigates the tribolayer properties at the interface of ceramic/metal (i.e., WC/W) sliding contacts using various experimental approaches and classical atomistic simulations. Experimentally, nanoindentation and micropillar compression tests, as well as adhesion mapping by means of atomic force microscopy, are used to evaluate the strength of tungsten-carbon tribolayers. To capture the influence of environmental conditions, a detailed chemical and structural analysis is performed on the worn surfaces by means of XPS mapping and depth profiling along with transmission electron microscopy of the debris particles. Experimentally, the results indicate a decrease in hardness and modulus of the worn surface compared to the unworn one. Atomistic simulations of nanoindentation on deformed and undeformed specimens are used to probe the strength of the WC tribolayer and despite the fact that the simulations do not include oxygen, the simulations correlate well with the experiments on deformed and undeformed surfaces, where the difference in behavior is attributed to the bonding and structural differences of amorphous and crystalline W-C. Adhesion mapping indicates a decrease in surface adhesion, which based on chemical analysis is attributed to surface passivation.

Friction and wear mechanisms of tungsten-carbon systems: a comparison of dry and lubricated conditions.

The unfolding of a sheared mechanically mixed third-body (TB) in tungsten/tungsten carbide sliding systems is studied using a combination of experiments and simulations. Experimentally, the topographical evolution and the friction response, for both dry and lubricated sliding, are investigated using an online tribometer. Ex situ X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and cross-sectional focused ion beam analysis of the structural and chemical changes near the surfaces show that dry sliding of tungsten against tungsten carbide results in plastic deformation of the tungsten surface, leading to grain refinement, and the formation of a mechanically mixed layer on the WC counterface. Sliding with hexadecane as a lubricant results in a less pronounced third-body formation due to much lower dissipated frictional power. Molecular dynamics simulations of the sliding couples predict chemical changes near the surface in agreement with the interfacial processes observed experimentally. Finally, online topography measurements demonstrate an excellent correlation between the evolution of the roughness and the frictional resistance during sliding.