Structural characterisation of tribologically influenced silicon carbide ceramic surfaces

Tribologically influenced ceramic surfaces are usually only looked at in terms of the wear effects: surface topography, friction coefficient, loss rates. Current efforts go towards a deeper understanding of mechanisms and kinetics. To gain this, the effects of the wear of ceramics on the phases and microstructures have to be analysed in detail. As an example for this, we studied tribologically influenced silicon carbide ceramics worn under water lubrication. Because structural changes occur within the uppermost μm and tribochemical reaction layers are often restricted to the nm-range, appropriate analytical tools have to be used and those come only now available. We will show how the currently developed techniques of X-ray microdiffraction combined with Raman spectroscopy can resolve many issues. Another recent improvement, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) on cross-sections prepared via the focused ion beam technology (FIB), helps to verify the findings of the former techniques.