Wear mechanism of diamond tools against single crystal silicon in single point diamond turning process

In this paper, a molecular dynamics simulation has been adopted to arrive at a phenomenological understanding of the wear mechanism of diamond tools against single crystal silicon in the single point diamond turning (SPDT) process. The radial distribution function confirms the formation of silicon carbide at the contact interface, which signals the initiation of wear of the diamond tool. A simultaneous mechanism of sp3–sp2 disorder of the diamond tool was also found to proceed in tandem. This mechanism is corroborated by a recent experimental study, where silicon carbide and carbon like particles were observed after machining of single crystal silicon with a diamond tool through X-ray photoelectron spectroscope (XPS) technology.