APTES nanofilm manufacturing using sliding interfaces

Harnessing tribochemical reactions at sliding interfaces has been proposed to provide an alternative perspective for manufacturing well-defined nanostructures for applications other than tribology. This approach provides a new notion of employing tribology to create nanofilms for applications such as micro/nanoelectromechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS). In this study, the ball-on-disc mini traction machine (MTM) was used to manufacture conductive tribofilms by using the 3-Aminopropyl triethoxysilane (APTES) as a precursor. Different rotation speeds were applied to evaluate the tribofilm growth at different lubrication regimes, including boundary and mixed regimes. The results confirmed the ability to manufacture thick tribofilm using APTES on steel surfaces. Tribofilm characterisation using Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy (EDS) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) confirmed the tribofilms’ formation and thickness. The film thickness of APTES reached up to 300 nm compared to 100 nm of ZDDP tribofilm without damaging the contact surface. The AFM analysis showed the conductivity of the formed APTES tribofilm compared to the nonconductive ZDDP tribofilm.