MAE Seminar: Robert Carpick

Coatings that manufacture themselves: Formation and performance of protective coatings in situ via tribosintering

Abstract:

Metal oxides powders typically require temperatures >1000° C to coalesce into dense solids. Remarkably, metal oxide nanocrystals, including ZrO₂ and TiO₂, dispersed in lubricants can sinter at room temperature due to tribological stresses (compression and frictional shear) in a process known as tribosintering. In this process, the nanoparticles forming solid, surface-bound films that we call tribocoatings. We show for the first time that such tribocoatings prevent wear and other common tribological failure mechanisms under a wide range of harsh conditions, rendering this approach promising for applications where harsh mechanical conditions are present.

Robert Carpick is the John Henry Towne Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics at the University of Pennsylvania. He studies nanotribology, nanomechanics, scanning probes, and mechanochemistry. He is a recipient of the AVS Nanotechnology Recognition Award, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Newkirk Award, a R&D 100 award, and a NSF CAREER Award. He is a Fellow of the ASME, the American Physical Society, the Materials Research Society, the AVS, and the Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers. He holds 10 patents and has authored over 200 peer-reviewed publications. Before joining UPenn in 2007, he was a faculty member at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He received his B.Sc. (U. Toronto, 1991) and his Ph.D. (U. California at Berkeley, 1997) in Physics, and was a postdoctoral researcher at Sandia National Laboratory. He served as Department Chair from 2011-2019, and since 2020 serves as the Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for his department.