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Our institute Publish papers on Applied Surface ScienceViews [3542] Delivery time :2015-09-20 10:33:31


Restructured graphene sheets embedded carbon film by oxygenplasma etching and its tribological properties

Applied Surface Science 357 (2015) 771–776(PDF-File

Meiling GuoDongfeng Diao*, Lei YangXue Fan

An oxygen plasma etching technique was introduced for improving the tribological properties of thegraphene sheets embeddedcarbon (GSEC) film in electron cyclotron resonance plasma processing system.The nanostructural changing in the film caused by oxygen plasma etching was examined by transmissionelectron microscope, Raman spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, showing that the 3 nmthick top surface layer was restructured with smaller graphene nanocrystallite size as well as higher sp3bond fraction. The surface roughness, mechanical behavior and tribological properties of the original GSECand oxygen plasma treated GSEC films were compared. The results indicated that after the oxygen plasmatreatment, the average roughness decreased from 20.8 ± 1.1 nm to 1.9 ± 0.1 nm, the hardness increasedfrom 2.3 ± 0.1 GPa to 2.9 ± 0.1 GPa, the nanoscratch depth decreased from 64.5 ± 5.4 nm to 9.9 ± 0.9 nm,and the wear life increased from 930 ± 390 cycles to more than 15,000 frictional cycles. The origin of theimproved tribological behavior was ascribed to the 3 nm thick graphene nanocrystallite film. This findingcan be expected for wide applications in nanoscale surface engineering.