The high friction and wear coefficients of contacting surfaces present serious problems at the micro and nano-scale contacts. Vapor phase lubrication, through the adsorbed molecules, can reduce adhesion, and thus wear between the contacting surfaces. Furthermore, surface texturing, which can reduce the contact area and improve hydrodynamic efficiency, may also help reduce friction coefficient between the rubbing contacts. Diamond-Like Carbon (DLC) is used as a coating material because of its high hardness and chemical inertness and resistance to friction and wear. DLC shows an ultralow friction coefficient, but wear may be high depending on operating conditions and environments. On the other hand, ball-on-flat tribometer tests show that using alcohol vapor as a lubricant on DLC prevents the wear of DLC surface even though the friction coefficient isn't very low. Combining both vapor phase lubrication and surface texturing, which is produced by maskless fabrication method using reactive polystyrene colloids, should result in reduction of both wear and friction coefficient on DLC. Investigation of different vapors and textured surfaces could lead to wear-free and frictionless contact on DLC.

Using surface texturing and vapor phase lubrication to reduce friction and wear of diamond-like carbon

244th National Meeting (2012)

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