Humidity-dependent lubrication of highly loaded contacts by graphite and a structural transition to turbostratic carbon

Carina Elisabeth Morstein, Andreas Klemenz, Martin Dienwiebel () and Michael Moseler ()
Additional contact information
Carina Elisabeth Morstein: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), IAM - Institute for Applied Materials
Andreas Klemenz: Fraunhofer-Institute for Mechanics of Materials IWM, MicroTribology Center μTC
Martin Dienwiebel: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), IAM - Institute for Applied Materials
Michael Moseler: Fraunhofer-Institute for Mechanics of Materials IWM, MicroTribology Center μTC

Nature Communications, 2022, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-16

Abstract: Abstract Graphite represents a promising material for solid lubrication of highly loaded tribological contacts under extreme environmental conditions. At low loads, graphite’s lubricity depends on humidity. The adsorption model explains this by molecular water films on graphite leading to defect passivation and easy sliding of counter bodies. To explore the humidity dependence and validate the adsorption model for high loads, a commercial graphite solid lubricant is studied using microtribometry. Even at 1 GPa contact pressure, a high and low friction regime is observed - depending on humidity. Transmission electron microscopy reveals transformation of the polycrystalline graphite lubricant into turbostratic carbon after high and even after low load (50 MPa) sliding. Quantum molecular dynamics simulations relate high friction and wear to cold welding and shear-induced formation of turbostratic carbon, while low friction originates in molecular water films on surfaces. In this work, a generalized adsorption model including turbostratic carbon formation is suggested.

Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-33481-9 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:13:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-022-33481-9

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-33481-9

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().