Synthesis and Tribological Properties of Graphene Nanostructures for Use in Space Technology

The synthesis of graphene nanostructures and their tribological properties for applications in space technologies are discussed in this article. The results of experiments on graphene synthesis using the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method are presented. A series of experiments aimed at determining the optimal technological parameters for obtaining high-quality graphene identified the optimal synthesis conditions: temperature (1000 °C) and gas ratio (0.5/200 cm³/min). The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) results confirm the high quality of the synthesized nanostructures and their uniform distribution. Raman spectroscopy, performed to assess the quality of the nanostructures, established that the synthesized nanostructures are graphene with an I2D/IG ratio of 1.89. The analysis showed that the obtained graphene has a monolayer structure. Tribological experiments demonstrated that the graphene coating significantly reduces the coefficient of friction compared to conventional steel. The obtained results confirmed the high efficiency of the graphene coating both when using lubricants and under dry friction conditions. This opens up opportunities for improving the performance of tribological systems and extending their service life. Further research will focus on improving synthesis methods and evaluating the strength characteristics of graphene nanostructures under space operation conditions.