Advanced Materials Letters

Abstract

The metal surface modification by carbon nanostructures followed by high intense treatment has been realized. As carbon nanostructures were used: carbon soot formed in an arc discharge with graphite electrodes remained after extraction of fullerenes; fullerene C60; partially reduced graphene oxide. An intense pulsed laser and electron beam accelerator were used as high intense energy sources. Measurements performed indicate that the above described processing of the steel surface results in a considerable enhancement of the microhardness (up to 800%) and a notable decrease (up to 50%) in the friction coefficient. The degree of reinforcement depends on both the type of nanocarbon and the source of energy. The maximum effect of reinforcement is reached for fullerene C60 coverage and laser irradiation. The dependence of the microhardness of the treated surface on the irradiation energy has a non-monotone character reaching the maximum value of about 200 J/cm 2 at the laser irradiation and 400 J/cm 2 at the e-beam irradiation.