The Effect of Carbonizing Temperature on Friction and Wear Properties of Hard Porous Carbon Materials Made from Rice Husk

Abstract

The new hard porous carbon material called the RH (rice husk) ceramics has been developed by carbonizing rice husk as the main raw material. In order to clarify the friction and wear properties of RH ceramics, a study of the effect of carbonization temperature on the mechanical and tribological properties of RH ceramics was undertaken. RH ceramics samples carbonized at 900, 1400, and 1500 °C were prepared for this study. The RH ceramics samples were inspected using X-ray diffraction, EDX and scanning electron microscopy. Mechanical properties of RH ceramics such as Vickers hardness, compressive strength, and bulk density were also studied. The RH ceramics carbonized at 1500 °C had much higher porosity compared to the ones carbonized at lower temperatures. In addition, the bulk density and compressive strength decreased with increasing carbonization temperature. Whereas, the hardness was higher for the RH ceramics carbonized at higher temperatures. Ball-on-disk sliding tests showed that the RH ceramics carbonized at the conventional 900 °C have better friction and wear properties compared to the ones carbonized at 1400 and 1500 °C under dry condition sliding against austenitic stainless steel (JIS SUS304). The friction coefficient and specific wear rate took very low values of 0.07 and less and 5.0×10^-10mm²/N and less, correspondingly, for the RH ceramics carbonized at 900 °C. Based on the experimental results, friction and wear mechanisms have been summarized for each carbonization temperature.