Revealing the intrinsic structural effect on nano-wear behavior of alloys: Amorphous versus crystalline
Qian Jia, Xiaopeng Ruan, Yucheng Wang, Qing Zhou, Yue Ren, Guoliang Yang, Jianxi Liu, Zheng Chen, Xiaolin Li, Xiangtao Deng, Haifeng Wang, Feng Zhou, Jian Wang, Weimin Liu
Abstract
Amorphous alloys exhibit superior macroscopic wear resistance over crystalline counterparts simply due to their high hardness. The underlying mechanisms considering interaction and deformation at contact interface are not understood physically, lacking a basic understanding of the disordered structural effect. Here, we conducted atomic force microscope nano-wear tests on both amorphous and crystalline ZrCu alloys to explore the effect of intrinsic structural order on tribological performance. Compared to the crystalline alloy with the identical composition, the amorphous alloy shows exceptional anti-wear properties with dramatic reductions in adhesive and ploughing friction. First principle calculations revealed that the lack of structural order causes the large incommensurability between tip and amorphous surface, and reduces the interfacial adhesion. Moreover, the high hardness and large elastic recovery associated with the disordered structure reduce the ploughing friction and enhance the nanoscopic wear resistance. These findings would deepen the understanding of intrinsic structural effect on friction mechanisms, and offer insights for the development of wear-resistant alloys.