Spinel oxide enables high-temperature self-lubrication in superalloys
| dc.contributor.author | Zhang, Zhengyu | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Hershkovitz, Eitan | en |
| dc.contributor.author | An, Qi | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Liu, Liping | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Wang, Xiaoqing | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Deng, Zhifei | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Baucom, Garrett | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Wang, Wenbo | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Zhao, Jing | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Xin, Ziming | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Moore, Lowell | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Yi, Yao | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Islam, Md Rezwan Ul | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Chen, Xin | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Cui, Bai | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Li, Ling | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Xin, Hongliang | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Li, Lin | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Kim, Honggyu | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Cai, Wenjun | en |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2025-02-03T18:19:12Z | en |
| dc.date.available | 2025-02-03T18:19:12Z | en |
| dc.date.issued | 2024-11-20 | en |
| dc.description.abstract | The ability to lubricate and resist wear at temperatures above 600 °C in an oxidative environment remains a significant challenge for metals due to their high-temperature softening, oxidation, and rapid degradation of traditional solid lubricants. Herein, we demonstrate that high-temperature lubricity can be achieved with coefficients of friction (COF) as low as 0.10-0.32 at 600- 900 °C by tailoring surface oxidation in additively-manufactured Inconel superalloy. By integrating high-temperature tribological testing, advanced materials characterization, and computations, we show that the formation of spinel-based oxide layers on superalloy promotes sustained self-lubrication due to their lower shear strength and more negative formation and cohesive energy compared to other surface oxides. A reversible phase transformation between the cubic and tetragonal/monoclinic spinel was driven by stress and temperature during high temperature wear. To span Ni- and Cr-based ternary oxide compositional spaces for which little high-temperature COF data exist, we develop a computational design method to predict the lubricity of oxides, incorporating thermodynamics and density functional theory computations. Our finding demonstrates that spinel oxide can exhibit low COF values at temperatures much higher than conventional solid lubricants with 2D layered or Magnéli structures, suggesting a promising design strategy for selflubricating high-temperature alloys. | en |
| dc.description.sponsorship | The authors gratefully acknowledge funding provided by the US National Science Foundation (DMR-2104655/2104656). The STEM experiments were supported by the US National Science Foundation (DMR-2226478). This work used shared facilities at the Nanoscale Characterization and Fabrication Laboratory, which is funded and managed by Virginia Tech’s Institute forCritical Technology and Applied Science. Additional support is provided by the Virginia Tech National Center for Earth and Environmental Nanotechnology Infrastructure (NanoEarth), a member of the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI), supported by NSF (ECCS 1542100 and ECCS 2025151). | en |
| dc.description.version | Published version | en |
| dc.format.mimetype | application/pdf | en |
| dc.identifier.doi | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-54482-w | en |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/10919/124469 | en |
| dc.identifier.volume | 15 | en |
| dc.language.iso | en | en |
| dc.publisher | Nature Research | en |
| dc.rights | Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International | en |
| dc.rights.uri | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ | en |
| dc.title | Spinel oxide enables high-temperature self-lubrication in superalloys | en |
| dc.title.serial | Nature Communications | en |
| dc.type | Article - Refereed | en |
| dc.type.dcmitype | Text | en |