Tribological performance of DLC films deposited on ACM rubber by PACVD

In this paper the tribological and adhesive performance of DLC films prepared by plasma assisted chemical vapor deposition on acrylic rubber (ACM) are studied. The effect of applied load and sliding velocity on the coefficient of friction and wear rate has been investigated. Effects of the rubber substrate and of ageing of the coated samples have also been explored. In addition, the adhesion of the DLC films to the rubber substrates is evaluated via stretch tests and the measured adhesion strength is larger than 40 MPa, indicating a superb adhesion to the substrate. It is shown that the tribological performance is greatly influenced by the viscoelastic properties of the substrate, and higher coefficients of friction are obtained at higher loads and velocities. The wear followed a similar trend, although very low in all the cases.

Research highlights
► The protection of rubber with DLC films is very effective.
► The adhesion of the DLC films to the rubber is superb.
► The CoF is low, and depends on the patch size.
► The CoF is influenced by the rubber viscoelasticity, and depends on the test conditions.
► The wear is neglibigible, although higher for higher test velocity and load.