Microstructure and tribological properties of laser cladded self-lubricating nickel-base composite coatings containing nano-Cu and h-BN solid lubricants

In the present work, nickel-base composite powder (Ni60), nickel-base composite powder with the addition of h-BN solid lubricants (h-BN/Ni60) and nickel-base composite powder with the addition of nano-Cu encapsulated h-BN solid lubricants (nano-Cu/h-BN/Ni60) were used as raw materials to synthesize three different coatings on Q235 steels by laser cladding. Microstructures of these coatings were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectroscopy. Tribological properties of these coatings were investigated at the temperatures from 25 °C to 600 °C. High temperature micro-hardness measurement was performed by Vickers micro-hardness tester. The results showed that the h-BN particles survived after laser cladding and displayed a homogeneous distribution in the nickel-base composite matrix. The encapsulation of h-BN by nano-Cu resulted in an increase of h-BN content in the coating. Although the addition of nano-Cu and h-BN led to a decrease on hardness, the nano-Cu/h-BN/Ni60 coating had the lowest friction coefficient and wear rate among the three coatings in a wide range of temperature from 25 °C to 500 °C. The mechanism of wear reduction by addition of nano-Cu encapsulated h-BN solid-lubricants was also discussed in this research.