Recently, the engineering structural ceramics as friction and wear components in manufacturing technology and devices have attracted much attention due to their high strength and corrosion resistance. In this study, the tribological properties of Si3N4/Si3N4 sliding pairs were investigated by adding few-layer graphene to base lubricating oil on the lubrication and cooling under different experimental conditions. Test results showed that lubrication and cooling performance was obviously improved with the addition of graphene at high rotational speeds and low loads. For oil containing 0.1 wt% graphene at a rotational speed of 3000 r·min-1 and 40 N loads, the average friction coefficient was reduced by 76.33%. The cooling effect on Si3N4/Si3N4 sliding pairs, however, was optimal at low rotational speeds and high loads. For oil containing 0.05 wt% graphene at a lower rotational speed of 500 r·min-1 and a higher load of 140 N, the temperature rise was reduced by 19.76%. In addition, the wear mark depth would decrease when adding appropriate graphene. The mechanism behind the reduction in friction and anti-wear properties was related to the formation of a lubricating protective film.
Keywords: Si3N4; friction; graphene; lubrication; temperature rise.