AVS 61st International Symposium & Exhibition
    Tribology Focus Topic Thursday Sessions
       Session TR-ThA

Invited Paper TR-ThA6
Unusual Friction and Wear Behavior of Graphene in Different Environments

Thursday, November 13, 2014, 4:00 pm, Room 303

Session: Tribology in Unique Environs
Presenter: Ali Erdemir, Argonne National Laboratory
Authors: A. Erdemir, Argonne National Laboratory
D. Berman, Argonne National Laboratory
A.V. Sumant, Argonne National Laboratory
Correspondent: Click to Email
Graphene is a remarkable 2D material made of one-atom-thick carbon layer. Its unusual electrical, thermal, optical, and mechanical properties make it a promising material for numerous industrial applications. Recently, graphene was also shown to exhibit unusual tribological properties when used at sliding contact interfaces. In our laboratory, we have been exploring friction and wear behavior of graphene using nano-to-macro-scale tribological test systems and out of our research, we have discovered that a few layers of graphene on sliding surfaces can last tens of thousands of sliding cycles and the rubbing surfaces where graphene is applied to suffer very little or in some instances no wear. Friction was also dramatically reduced. We have found that graphene works equally well in humid or dry test environments; thus contrasting the very high environmental sensitivity of other solid lubricants like graphite or molybdenum disulfide. Our more recent studies have confirmed that even one layer of graphene put on a steel surface has a lifetime of more than 6000 cycles in hydrogen and the rubbing surfaces show no sign of wear. When 2 to 3 layers of large graphene sheets were applied, the lifetime increases to more than 30,000 cycles. Furthermore, under the right test conditions or against the right kind of counterfaces, graphene has the ability to literally vanish friction. This and other tribological observations point to a unique lubrication mechanism for graphene. In this talk, we will provide a comprehensive overview of recent experimental findings regarding the unusual friction and wear behavior of graphene and try to explain why it is so effective in drastically reducing friction and wear despite being only one atom thick.