Electrotribological Properties of MS-Ag Coating under Current Carrying Lubrication

The silver coating was prepared by DC magnetron sputtering, the structure of silver coating was analyzed by X-ray diffraction. Polyaniline grease was prepared with polyaniline (PANI) as a conductive lubricant additive, and the friction and conductivity of silver coating were evaluated by using a current carrying friction and wear tester (HFT-4000). The worn surface was evaluated by scanning electron microscopy(SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy(EDS). The results showed that PANI grease had better lubricity and lower resistance than commercial conductive grease, and the silver coating by magnetron sputtering had better tribological and conductive properties than that by silver plating. The reason was due to the combined effect of current induced thermal effect and the tribochemical effect of PANI grease on the surface of friction pair.