On the mechanical and tribological behavior of Al3Mg2 complex metallic alloys as bulk material and as coating

New materials with tunable physical, mechanical, chemical, and thermal properties are attractive for many applications and stand as prospective substitutes for the existing engineering materials. In that respect, complex metallic alloys (CMA) have recently demonstrated promising traits where a myriad of physical, mechanical, chemical properties can be obtained by altering the structure. CMA's have a large crystal size with thousands of atoms per unit cell. In this work, some mechanical properties and tribological behavior of Al3Mg2 based CMA are discussed. The surface characterization, deformation mode, mechanical and tribological properties of bulk and thin film Al3Mg2 materials are investigated, and compared with existing engineering materials. The results revealed a contrasting tribological behavior of Al3Mg2 when used as either bulk material or as coating. Al3Mg2 coatings act as a low friction solid lubricant under certain conditions, with a coefficient of friction comparable to that of diamond-like carbon coatings. It is suggested that the quasi-crystalline nature of Al3Mg2-coatings renders the surface stiff and that the characteristics of the wear debris generated are responsible for the low friction behavior.