Abstract
This paper describes a new carbon film that afford superlubricity (i.e, friction coefficients of 0.001- 0.005) and superlow wear rates (i.e., $10^{-11}-10^{-10}mm^3/N.m$) to sliding metallic and ceramic surfaces, when tested in inert test environments. The wear life of these films are more than 1000 km even under very high contact pressures (i.e., 1-3 GPa) and at a wide range of sliding velocities (i.e., 0.1 to 2 m/s). They are produced in a plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition system at room temperature using highly hydrogenated gas discharge plasmas. Extensive research has shown that films grown in highly hydrogenated gas discharge plasmas (i.e., hydrogen-to-carbon ratio of 6 and above) provide superlow friction and wear coefficients. In full paper, specific conditions under which superlubricity can be achieved in carbon films will be discussed.and a mechanistic model will be proposed to explain the superlubricity of new carbon films.