Tribological performance and conductive capacity of Ag coating under boundary lubrication

To achieve simple, stable and long-life sliding electrical contact pairs, a kind of fine silver coating on electrical contact components was designed and prepared. In this article, electrodeposited fine silver (Ag), heat treated Ag and silver-graphite (Ag/C) composite coatings based on copper (Cu) substrate were prepared. The polyaniline (PAN) was doped as a conductive additive to afford the conductive grease. Compared with the Cu, Ag, treated Ag and Ag/C coatings, the Ag coating lubricated by PAN grease exhibited superior conductive capacity and excellent boundary-lubricated friction behavior. Through analysis of worn surface, the good tribological characteristics of Ag coating are ascribed to mechanical effect of the PAN particles and the protective film generated by PAN grease.