Outstanding high-temperature oxidation- and wear-resistance of WC based cermets

The interaction between oxidation and frictional load can greatly deteriorate the performance of ceramic -metal composites. In this work, we used WC-Co cermet as a representative of ceramic-metal composites to study its wear failure behavior and protection effectiveness. It is found that a transition of wear mech-anism from mechanical wear to oxidative wear occurs with increasing temperature. The addition of zir-conia can significantly improve the anti-oxidation performance and load-bearing capacity of the cermet under the frictional load. This is mainly attributed to the modulation of the tribo-oxide layer constitu-tions and changes in surface morphology. The zirconia component facilitates the formation of a dense protective oxide layer and reduces the content of brittle oxides on the worn surface. Based on the under-standing of the temperature-and oxidation-induced compositional and microstructural evolutions at the sliding contact surface and subsurface, a promising approach is proposed for developing ceramic-metal composites with high wear resistance and anti-oxidation capability.(c) 2023 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The editorial office of Journal of Materials Science & Technology.

Automated summary

In this study, WC-Co cermet was used as a representative material to investigate its wear failure behavior and protection effectiveness. It was found that the wear mechanism transitions from mechanical wear to oxidative wear with increasing temperature. The addition of zirconia significantly improves the anti-oxidation performance and load-bearing capacity of the cermet, mainly through the modulation of the tribo-oxide layer compositions and changes in surface morphology. Based on the understanding of temperature- and oxidation-induced compositional and microstructural evolutions, a promising approach for developing ceramic-metal composites with high wear resistance and anti-oxidation capability is proposed.