Ocean tribology, a new research field of tribology, is being established and developing. The investigation on the tribology in sea water has important significance to ocean exploitation. In this paper, the tribological behaviors of UHMWPE, PTFE as well as Ekonol/PTFE, graphite/PTFE and CF/PTFE sliding against GCr15 steel and Ni-Cr-WC alloy in sea water were investigated, and compared with those in pure water. Results show that the main factors that affect the tribological behaviors of five polymeric materials in sea water are the corrosive effect and lubricating effect of sea water. When polymeric materials sliding against GCr15 in sea water, owing to serious corrosion of counterface by sea water, the surface roughness of the counterface increases largely. As a result, the lubricating effect of medium decreases sharply and the plowing effect of counterface increases greatly. So the friction coefficients and wear rates of five materials sliding against GCr15 in sea water are much larger than those under other conditions. Such wear model, depending on the corrosion of counterface by medium, can be called indirect corrosive wear. Under other three conditions, owing to the more superior lubricating effect of sea water than pure water and the better wettability of Ni-Cr-WC than GCr15, the friction coefficients and wear rates of five materials increase in the following order: sliding against Ni-Cr-WC in sea water < sliding against Ni-Cr-WC in pure water < sliding against GCr15 in pure water. Moreover, compared with other materials, CF/PTFE is the one with more superior plowing and wear resistance in pure and sea water, which is a potential frictional material well suitable for pure and sea water lubrication.
