Preparation and anisotropic tribological properties of MoAlB/Al laminated composites

The unique microstructure of biomaterials provides inspiration in materials structure design and performance breakthroughs. Here we prepared a MoAlB reinforced Al matrix composites with laminated structure and strong interfacial bonding. This work mainly focuses on the relationship between tribological properties of the MoAlB/Al laminated composites and the MoAlB layer orientation. The results show that the tribological properties of the composites deeply depend on the relation of sliding direction VS. the MoAlB layer orientation, while the dependency gradually decreases with the MoAlB content increasing. The friction coefficient and wear rate of the composites can be decreased by 55.5% and 95.1%, lower than those of pure Al, when 15 vol% MoAlB reinforcement is added. The friction and wear mechanisms of the MoAlB/Al laminated composites are proposed, and the outstanding tribological properties are ascribed to the formation of tribochemical worn film and different stress states caused by the laminated structure.