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Title: Achieving Ultralow Wear with Stable Nanocrystalline Metals

Abstract

Recent work suggests that thermally stable nanocrystallinity in metals is achievable in several binary alloys by modifying grain boundary energies via solute segregation. The remarkable thermal stability of these alloys has been demonstrated in recent reports, with many alloys exhibiting negligible grain growth during prolonged exposure to near-melting temperatures. In this paper, we show that PtAu, a proposed stable alloy consisting of two noble metals, exhibits extraordinary resistance to wear. Ultra-low wear rates, less than a monolayer of material removed per sliding pass, were measured for PtAu thin films at a maximum Hertz contact stress of up to 1.1 GPa. This is the first instance of an all-metallic material exhibiting a specific wear rate on the order of 10-9 mm3/N-m, comparable to diamond-like carbon and sapphire. Remarkably, the wear rate of sapphire and silicon nitride probes used in wear experiments were either higher or comparable to that of the PtAu alloy, despite the substantially higher hardness of the ceramic probe materials. High-resolution microscopy showed negligible surface microstructural evolution in the wear tracks after 100k sliding passes. Finally, mitigation of fatigue-driven delamination enabled a transition to wear by atomic attrition, a regime previously limited to highly wear resistant materials such asmore » diamond-like carbon.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [1]
  1. Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States). Material, Physical, and Chemical Sciences Center
  2. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States). Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); SNL Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program; US Army Research Office (ARO)
OSTI Identifier:
1467025
Report Number(s):
SAND2018-3274J
Journal ID: ISSN 0935-9648; 661854
Grant/Contract Number:  
NA0003525; W911NF-14-1-0539
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Advanced Materials
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 30; Journal Issue: 32; Journal ID: ISSN 0935-9648
Publisher:
Wiley
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; friction; metals; nanocrystalline; stable; wear

Citation Formats

Curry, John F., Babuska, Tomas F., Furnish, Timothy A., Lu, Ping, Adams, David P., Kustas, Andrew B., Nation, Brendan L., Dugger, Michael T., Chandross, Michael, Clark, Blythe G., Boyce, Brad L., Schuh, Christopher A., and Argibay, Nicolas. Achieving Ultralow Wear with Stable Nanocrystalline Metals. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.1002/adma.201870242.
Curry, John F., Babuska, Tomas F., Furnish, Timothy A., Lu, Ping, Adams, David P., Kustas, Andrew B., Nation, Brendan L., Dugger, Michael T., Chandross, Michael, Clark, Blythe G., Boyce, Brad L., Schuh, Christopher A., & Argibay, Nicolas. Achieving Ultralow Wear with Stable Nanocrystalline Metals. United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201870242
Curry, John F., Babuska, Tomas F., Furnish, Timothy A., Lu, Ping, Adams, David P., Kustas, Andrew B., Nation, Brendan L., Dugger, Michael T., Chandross, Michael, Clark, Blythe G., Boyce, Brad L., Schuh, Christopher A., and Argibay, Nicolas. Mon . "Achieving Ultralow Wear with Stable Nanocrystalline Metals". United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201870242. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1467025.
@article{osti_1467025,
title = {Achieving Ultralow Wear with Stable Nanocrystalline Metals},
author = {Curry, John F. and Babuska, Tomas F. and Furnish, Timothy A. and Lu, Ping and Adams, David P. and Kustas, Andrew B. and Nation, Brendan L. and Dugger, Michael T. and Chandross, Michael and Clark, Blythe G. and Boyce, Brad L. and Schuh, Christopher A. and Argibay, Nicolas},
abstractNote = {Recent work suggests that thermally stable nanocrystallinity in metals is achievable in several binary alloys by modifying grain boundary energies via solute segregation. The remarkable thermal stability of these alloys has been demonstrated in recent reports, with many alloys exhibiting negligible grain growth during prolonged exposure to near-melting temperatures. In this paper, we show that PtAu, a proposed stable alloy consisting of two noble metals, exhibits extraordinary resistance to wear. Ultra-low wear rates, less than a monolayer of material removed per sliding pass, were measured for PtAu thin films at a maximum Hertz contact stress of up to 1.1 GPa. This is the first instance of an all-metallic material exhibiting a specific wear rate on the order of 10-9 mm3/N-m, comparable to diamond-like carbon and sapphire. Remarkably, the wear rate of sapphire and silicon nitride probes used in wear experiments were either higher or comparable to that of the PtAu alloy, despite the substantially higher hardness of the ceramic probe materials. High-resolution microscopy showed negligible surface microstructural evolution in the wear tracks after 100k sliding passes. Finally, mitigation of fatigue-driven delamination enabled a transition to wear by atomic attrition, a regime previously limited to highly wear resistant materials such as diamond-like carbon.},
doi = {10.1002/adma.201870242},
journal = {Advanced Materials},
number = 32,
volume = 30,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Aug 06 00:00:00 EDT 2018},
month = {Mon Aug 06 00:00:00 EDT 2018}
}