Adhesion and friction performance of DLC/rubber: The influence of plasma pretreatment

Abstract Diamond-like carbon (DLC) films are deposited on rubber surfaces to protect the components, and surface pretreatment of substrates prior film deposition can improve adhesion between DLC rubber. Thus, principal purpose this work concentrates determining effects argon (Ar), oxygen (O 2 ), nitrogen (N hydrogen (H ) plasma pretreatments friction performance (DLC/rubber). The results indicated that Ar promoted formation a compact layer surface. By contrast, massive fillers were exposed after or pretreatments. Moreover, typical micrometer-scale patches divided by random cracks observed DLC/rubber, except for sample pretreated with plasma. DLC/rubber was found strengthen removal weak boundary layers generation free radicals pretreatment. tribo-tests revealed O , N H cannot achieve optimal performance. Significantly, exhibited low stable coefficient 0.19 superior wear resistance, which correlated high adhesion, good load-bearing surface, approximate sine function profile film.