Lubricating effect of graphene during ultra-precision mechanical polishing by atomic scale simulation

Abstract

As a new two-dimensional material with unique friction and wear properties, graphene often serves as a solid lubricant. In order to better understand the lubrication effect of graphene in the process of three-body polishing of single crystal silicon with diamond abrasive, a molecular dynamics model of this process was established in this study. Further, the changes of coordination number, friction coefficient, temperature, potential energy, stress, and surface/subsurface damage in the process of three-body polishing were analyzed in detail. The results showed that graphene lubrication could enhance the heat dissipation and reduce the number of defect atoms, friction coefficient, potential energy, stress, and chips. Therefore, less subsurface damage and material resistance were observed in the workpiece with graphene lubrication during machining. In general, graphene can be used as a high-quality solid lubricant in the three-body polishing of single crystal silicon using diamond abrasive because of its excellent lubricating effect.