One of the limitations of the use of ceramic materials for the construction of mechanical parts is their rather high friction coefficient. Taking into account that ceramics are used mainly in parts exposed to extreme working conditions (high temperatures, aggressive environment, vacuum etc.) the use of liquid lubricants for friction reduction is excluded. The method of choice is thus such modification of surface layer of ceramic which, keeping its chemical inertness and temperature resistance almost unchanged, allows one to effectively reduce the friction forces.
In the presented work we examined two methods of friction reduction; (i) formation of thin surface layer of reduced hardness (to take advantage of Tabor and Bowden concept of adhesive friction in layered materials) and (ii) introduction of nanometer-sized precipitates of solid lubricants to the surface layer of material. The samples were implanted with various doses of inert ions (Ar or Kr) or with soft metal ions (In or Ag). Both methods lead to significant friction reduction, the best results being obtained for alumina implanted with In ions when the friction coefficient was reduced by a factor of about 3. The measurements of nanohardness revealed substantially lower hardness and very high plasticity of the irradiated layers.
The results obtained are analysed in terms of the level of radiation damage caused by ion implantation and the depth distribution profiles of implanted ions. The sample surface was inspected by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) technique supplemented with the elemental analysis. The analysis of the experimental data allowed us to explain the obtained results within the frames of the adhesive friction theory.

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