Evolution of Nanostructured Carbon Coatings Quality via RT-CVD and Their Tribological Behavior on Nodular Cast Iron

One of the most critical problems in industry is the wear of materials. Graphene, as a tribological coating, has shown a tremendous impact on sliding surfaces. In this work, a few layers of graphene were grown on a nodular cast iron substrate, a material used in camshafts. The studied synthesis parameters in a rapid thermal chemical vapor deposition (CVD) furnace and the quality of the final coating are presented. The influence of hydrogen flow and cooling rate was evaluated, obtaining the best results in the few layers of graphene structure and deposition at 10 sccm and 4 degrees C/min. A standard ball-on-disk tribometer was used to assess the coefficient of friction on a few layers of graphene on nodular cast iron substrates. Laboratory test results show that the few layers of graphene coating resulted in a 60% reduction in coefficient of friction and close to a 70% reduction in volume removed versus the uncoated substrates. The surface of the substrate was not modified before a few layers of graphene growth to have a working surface close to camshafts obtained by the industrial process at ARBOMEX SA de CV.