Reciprocating dry sliding friction and wear behavior of B319 aluminum alloy-graphene composites

In the current study, the B319 aluminum (Al) alloy-graphene composites were fabricated using a stir-casting process, and the composites' tribological behavior was examined under dry sliding conditions. The B319-0.3 wt.% graphene exhibited ~42% and ~52% higher friction and wear resistance than the baseline B319 alloy. Both friction and wear resistance of the B319 alloy deteriorated at higher graphene contents (0.5 and 0.7 wt.%), indicating the best tribological performance was achieved with 0.3 wt.% graphene addition. The wear in the base alloy primarily occurred by mechanically mixed layer (MML) delamination via subsurface crack propagation, while the wear in the B319 - 0.3 wt.% graphene composite was driven by MML fragmentation, accompanied by adhesive, oxidative, and abrasive wear mechanisms.