Tribological performance of surface with different wettability under ball-on-disc test

Abstract This paper proposes an innovative and reliable method to reduce friction and wear using a robust lyophobic surface with microstructures. The tribological performance of four kinds of surfaces, including a microstructured surface (MS) without low surface energy treatment, a lyophobic microstructured surface (LMS), a robust lyophobic microstructured surface (RLMS), and an untextured surface (US), were investigated using ball-on-disc testing with lubrication. The experimental results indicate that compared to the US sample, the RLMS sample fabricated with the proposed method reduced the friction coefficient by approximately 21.6%. In addition, the wear mass loss of the RLMS was reduced by 36.42% under specific conditions compared to the US sample. Furthermore, the antifriction mechanism of the robust lyophobic microstructured surface is analyzed and discussed in detail.