Tribological behavior of CNTs-Cu and graphite-Cu composites with electric current

CNTs-Cu and graphite-Cu composites were separately prepared by powder metallurgy technique under the same consolidation processing. Tribological behavior of the composites with electric current was investigated by using a pin-on-disk friction and wear tester. The results show that the friction coefficient and wear rate of the composites decrease with increasing the reinforcement content, and increase with increasing the electric current density; the effects of electric current are more obvious on tribological properties of graphite-Cu composites than on CNTs-Cu composites; for graphite-Cu composites the dominant wear mechanisms are electric arc erosion and adhesive wear, while for CNTs-Cu composites are adhesive wear.