Sliding wear characteristics of plasma-sprayed Al2O3 and Cr2O3 coatings against copper alloy under severe conditions

Al2O3 and Cr2O3 coatings were deposited by atmospheric plasma spraying and their tribological properties dry sliding against copper alloy were evaluated using a block-on-ring configuration at room temperature. It was found that the wear resistance of Al2O3 coating was superior to that of the Cr2O3 coating under the conditions used in the present study. This mainly attributed to its better thermal conductivity of Al2O3 coating, which was considered to effectively facilitate the dissipation of tribological heat and alleviate the reduction of hardness due to the accumulated tribological heat. As for the Al2O3 coating, the wear mechanism was plastic deformation along with some micro-abrasion and fatigue-induced brittle fracture, while the failure of Cr2O3 coating was predominantly the crack propagation-induced detachment of transferred films and splats spallation.