Friction and Wear Properties of Super-Hydrophobic Diamond-Like Carbon (DLC) Coating

In this research, the fabrication of super-hydrophobic DLC coating with micro/nanoscale of the double roughening structure by employing 2.45 GHz surface-wave excited plasma (SWP) CVD and tribological evaluation of DLC coatings. The microscale friction and wear properties of super-hydrophobic DLC coating in surface wettability and wear particle generation at the running interface have been investigated. Experimental results showed that at the microscale, the friction property of DLC coatings decreases with the surface wettability and their rough morphology. In addition, the contact area of the DLC coatings decreases with the coating wettability, owing to the increases in their root-mean-square (RMS) roughness. In the case of wear, super-hydrophobicity led to the formation of small wear debris and helpful to take away out of the rubbing interface before being removed.