A study of the wear behavior of diamond-like carbon films under the dry reciprocating sliding contact

This paper describes the tribological behaviors of the DLC films evaporated by graphite cathodic arc method in dry reciprocating sliding against Al–Si alloy and Al2O3. The results showed that the frictional behaviors of the system exhibited a pronounced break-in with wear at the counterbody and the DLC film. After break-in stage, the frictional coefficient obtained at a steady-state were about 0.1. During break-in for Al–Si alloy against DLC film, system wear is mainly adhesive wear. After this initial wear stage, fatigue wear and adhesive wear are probably the dominating mechanisms for the counterbody, and abrasive wear and adhesive wear are probably the dominating mechanisms for the DLC film. Besides, for Al2O3 reciprocating sliding against the DLC film, system wear during break-in is mainly mocroabrasive wear due to the rough asperities of Al2O3 counterbody. After the initial wear stage, fatigue wear is probably the primary mechanism for Al2O3 counterbody, and abrasive wear is probably the primary mechanism for the film. In addition, the wear loss was relatively higher for the softer Al–Si alloy and the DLC film.