Manufacturing and tribological properties of copper matrix/carbon nanotubes composites

The dry wear tests were introduced to investigate the tribology properties varying with the contents of carbon nanotubes, the sliding velocity and the normal loadings on martensitic S45C carbon steels and the copper matrix composites with 5, 10, 15 and 20 vol.% carbon nanotubes, which are fabricated by the vacuum sintering method. The friction coefficient increases as the content of carbon nanotubes decreases and the wear rate shows the lowest value when the carbon nanotubes content is 10–15 vol.%. The rise of stick-slip effect results in that the friction coefficient and the contact resistance increased with the increasing of sliding velocity. Because of the effect in decreasing the stick-slip phenomenon and in increasing the plow and seizing wear, the tribology properties do not change apparently with the increasing of loads. In summary, when PV value is 1.802, the wear rate is the highest.