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The use of lubricants (solid or liquid) is a well-known and suitable approach to reduce friction and wear of moving machine components. Another possibility to influence the tribological behaviour is the formation of well-defined surface topographies such as dimples, bumps or lattice-like pattern geometries by laser surface texturing. However, both methods are limited in their effect: surface textures may be gradually destroyed by plastic deformation and lubricants may be removed from the contact area, therefore no longer properly protecting the contacting surfaces. The present study focuses on the combination of both methods as an integral solution, overcoming individual limitations of each method. Multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNT), a known solid lubricant, are deposited onto laser surface textured samples by electrophoretic deposition. The frictional behaviour is recorded by a tribometer and resulting wear tracks are analysed by scanning electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy in order to reveal the acting tribological mechanisms. The combined approach shows an extended, minimum fivefold longevity of the lubrication and a significantly reduced degradation of the laser textures. Raman spectroscopy proves decelerated MWCNT degradation and oxide formation in the contact. Finally, a lubricant entrapping model based on surface texturing is proposed and demonstrated.

a Defects and impurities in carbon nanotubes (CNTs), inherent to all synthesis routes, are generally addressed by thermal and/or chemical post treatments. These require atmosphere control, time-consuming temperature ramping, chemical handling, and often incur further defects. Furthermore, certain applications require nanotube treatments, such as dispersion, that cause further unwanted damage. Laser radiation was found to drastically increase purity, crystallinity and mean inter-defect distance while reducing defects, as indicated by Raman spectroscopy, effectively annealing our single-wall CNTs. Laser power density and radiation times, in other words, fluence, were optimised. When applied to CNTs with mechanically induced defects, these were almost fully eliminated. In addition to the tuned annealing of CNTs, unintentional sample modification can occur during Raman measurements if the influence of the power density and the exposure time are underestimated or disregarded. Fast laser radiation times and simple manipulation outdo common purification treatments. Additionally, selective shape and sitespecific parameters come into play such as interference patterns. Such arrangements of alternating tube quality, that is, in a CNT mat, could be interesting for preferred electronic conduction paths and find applications in, for example, interdigitated electrodes or sensors.

No abstract

In addition to the double phase transition (with the Curie temperatures TC=300 K and TCt=144 K), a low-temperature anomaly in the dependence of the magnetization is observed in the bulk magnetic graphite (MG) (with an average granular size of L≃10 nm), which is attributed to the manifestation of the size effects below the quantum temperature TL∝ℏ2/L2 and is well fitted by the periodic function ML(T)∝sin[M(T)Λ(T)/L] with M(T) being the bulk magnetization and Λ(T)∝ℏ/T the thermal de Broglie wavelength. The best fits of the high-temperature data (using the mean-field Curie–Weiss and Bloch expressions) produced reasonable estimates for the model parameters, such as defects mediated effective spin exchange energy J≃12 meV (which defines the intragranular Curie temperature TC) and proximity mediated interactions between neighboring grains (through potential barriers U created by thin layers of nonMG) with energy Jt=exp(−d/ξ)J≃5.8 meV (which defines the intergranular Curie temperature TCt) with d≃1.5 nm and ξ∝ℏ/U≃2 nm being the intergranular distance and characteristic length, respectively.