Preparation and tribological properties of graphene/TiO2 ceramic films

Single and multiple-layer TiO2 (GT) ceramic films with graphene nanoplatelets were obtained by sol-gel method. X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), UV-vis diffuse reflection spectroscope and atomic force microscope (AFM) were used to investigate the structure. Interestingly, the GT ceramic films were decorated by graphene nanoplatelets on surface and at interlayer. After heat treatment, graphene kept non-oxidized. The tribological properties of GT ceramic films were investigated using a reciprocating ball-on-plate configuration. The GT ceramic films show excellent antifriction and abrasion resistant properties that the minimum frictional coefficient approximates to 0.1. With more graphene quantity, less frictional coefficient and larger abrasive resistance were observed. When the graphene quantity keeps equally, the frictional coefficient decreases with layers of ceramic film. At high temperature, the frictional coefficient shows a decrease tendency, which reaches the minimum at 100 °C.