High-performance Self-lubricating Ceramic Composites with Laminated-graded Structure

High-performance ceramic composites are potential candidates for the application of wear-resistance components because of their excellent properties. Nevertheless, many problems, such as high friction coefficient of ceramic material and poor mechanical properties of ceramic-matrix self-lubricating composites, limit a wider range of applications of these composites in tribological areas. Therefore, improving high-toughness ceramic-matrix self-lubricating materials for practical applications is significant. This study proposes a new design for ceramic self-lubricating composites to overcome the conflict between their mechanical and tribological properties. Complying with the design principle of bionic and graded composites, two kinds of self-lubricating ceramic composites with laminated-graded structure were prepared, and their mechanical and tribological properties were studied. The results show that this newly developed ceramic composite has achieved satisfactory strength and tribological properties compared with the traditional ceramic self-lubricating composites. The bending strength reached the same level as the properties of general monolithic ceramics. In the temperature range of 25-800 °C, the friction coefficient of composites was less than 0.55, which was about half of that of monolithic ceramics