Seeking the Oxidation Mechanism of Debris in the Fretting Wear of Titanium Functionalized by Surface Laser Treatments

Surface laser treatment (SLT) using nanosecond IR lasers has been shown to improve the tribological behaviour of titanium. Here, we studied the fretting wear of SLT-functionalized pure titanium in a mixture of reactive gases O2 (20 vol.%) + N2 (80 vol.%). The contact geometry was a ball on a plane and the ball was made of bearing steel. The very small amplitude of relative displacement between reciprocating parts in fretting wear makes the evacuation of wear particles difficult. Moreover, the oxidation mechanism of the debris depends on the accessibility of the surrounding atmosphere to the tribological contact. This work focused in the analysis of debris generation and oxidation mechanisms, and sought to differentiate the role of oxygen forming part of the ambient O2 + N2 gas mixture from oxygen present in the surface layer of the SL-treated titanium. Before the fretting test, the surface of the commercially pure titanium plates was treated with a laser under a mixture of O2 + N2 gases with oxygen enriched in the 18O isotope. Then, the fretting tests were performed in regular air containing natural oxygen. Micro-Raman spectroscopy and ion beam analysis (IBA) techniques were used to analyse the TiO2 surface layers and fretting scars. Iron oxide particles were identified by Raman spectroscopy and IBA as the third body in the tribological contact. The spatial distribution of 18O, Ti, 16O and Fe in the fretting scars was studied by IBA. The analysis showed that the areas containing high concentrations of Fe displayed also high concentrations of 16O, but smaller concentrations of 18O and Ti. Therefore, it was concluded that tribological contact allows the oxidation of iron debris by its reaction with ambient air.