Friction and wear of Cr-doped DLC films under different lubrication conditions

In this paper, Cr-doped DLC films with various Cr contents were deposited on stainless steel plates by an ion beam deposition/magnetron sputtering hybrid method and the tribological performance of the samples was evaluated using a ball-on-disk tribometer. It was found that the influence of the Cr content in the Cr-doped DLC films on the friction coefficient when lubricated by PAO, 150SN, PAO + T307, or 150SN + T307 is insignificant while the friction coefficient of the Cr-doped DLC films under PAO + MoDTC or 150SN + MoDTC lubrication can be significantly reduced through the introduction of Cr at an optimum level into DLC films. The wear resistance of the DLC films under PAO, 150SN, PAO + MoDTC, or 150SN + MoDTC lubrication can be improved by the introduction of Cr into DLC films; but Cr doping is unbeneficial to the wear resistance of DLC films lubricated by PAO + T307 or 150SN + T307.