Friction and wear of metals in contact with pyrolytic graphite

Sliding friction experiments were conducted with gold, iron, and tantalum single crystals sliding on prismatic and basal orientations of pyrolytic graphite in various environments including, vacuum, oxygen, water vapor, nitrogen and hydrogen bromide. Surfaces were examined in the clean state and with various adsorbates present on the graphite surfaces. LEED, Auger spectroscopy, SEM, and EDXA were used to characterize the graphite surfaces. Results indicate that the prismatic and basal orientations do not contain nor do they chemisorb oxygen, water vapor, acetylene, or hydrogen bromide. All three metals exhibited higher friction on the prismatic than on the basal orientation and these metals transferred to the atomically clean prismatic orientation of pyrolytic graphite. No metal transfer to the graphite was observed in the presence of adsorbates at 760 torr. Ion bombardment of the graphite surface with nitrogen ions resulted in the adherence of nitrogen to the surface.