Experimental study on the effect of surface texture on tribological properties of nanodiamond films under water lubrication

Abstract

The effect of nanoscale surface texture on the frictional and wear performances of nanocrystalline diamond films under water-lubricating conditions were comparatively investigated using a reciprocating ball-on-flat tribometer. Although the untreated nanocrystalline diamond film shows a stable frictional state with an average friction coefficient of 0.26, the subsequent textured films show a beneficial effect on rapidly reducing the friction coefficient, which decreased to a stable value of 0.1. Furthermore, compared with the nanocrystalline diamond coating, the textured films showed a large decreasing rate of the corresponding ball wear rate from 4.16 × 10⁻³ to 1.15 × 10⁻³ mm³/N/m. This is due to the fact that the hydrodynamic fluid film composed of water and debris can provide a good lubrication environment, so the entire friction process has reached the state of fluid lubrication. Meanwhile, the surface texture can greatly improve the hydrophilicity of the diamond films, and as the texture density increases, the water contact angle decreases from 94.75° of the nanocrystalline diamond film to 78.5° of the textured films. The proper textured diamond film (NCD₉₀) exhibits superior tribological properties among all tested diamond films, such as short run-in period, low coefficient of friction, and wear rate.