Tribological behavior of aluminum-CNT coated metal composite under dry and water lubricated conditions

Carbon nanotubes are considered the best material in the field of composites because of their mechanical and tribological properties. In this study, carbon nanotubes coated metal was dispersed in aluminum, the base metal, to improve the wettability between aluminum and carbon nanotubes. The friction and wear behaviors of the aluminum-carbon nanotube coated metal, which is a nickel and copper composite, were investigated using a pin-on-disk wear tester under dry sliding and water lubricated conditions and evaluated using SEM and EDX analysis. All the results demonstrated that the addition of the carbon nanotubes coated metal significantly improved the wettability of CNTs in the aluminum. And the distribution of CNTs prevented the propagation of micro cracks on the surface of the aluminum base metal sample, resulting in enhanced friction characteristics and wear resistance of the nano composite. The composite exhibited lower friction coefficient and wear resistance under the water lubricated condition than the dry sliding condition. Although the lubrication and cooling effect of water contributed to the reduction of the friction coefficient of the composite, the separation of wear particles from the sliding surface changed the wear type from three-body to two-body, resulting in very high wear rate. Also the concentration of oxide under water lubricated condition contributed to the increase of the wear rate because the amount of oxide film removed in terms of thickness exceeded the critical thickness of real contact area.