Dry sliding wear behavior of β-Sialon ceramics at wide range temperature from 25 to 800 °C

The β-Sialons are potential candidates for high temperature application because of their excellent comprehensive performances. However, there is little research about dry sliding wear behavior of β-Sialons at wide range temperature. This study aims at revealing the mechanisms of how temperature, microstructure and mechanical properties affect the tribological properties of such composites. Four kinds of β-Sialons are prepared and their wear properties are characterized from 25 to 800 °C. Results show that β-Sialons have a preferable tribological property at 25 °C, which is ascribed to its excellent mechanical properties. Whereas, with temperature increasing, the wear rate increases two orders of magnitudes compared to 25 °C, owing to the reduced hardness and increased thermal stress of the sample. At 800 °C, the wear rate of composites decreases with z values increasing, which is attributed to the tribo-chemical reaction and generate more Al₂O₃ in β-Sialons with higher z values during sliding process.