Fracture-resistant self-lubricating wear surfaces

A system, comprising:

• an electric submersible pump;
• a component of the electric submersible pump subject to wear;
• and
• a metallic nanostructured surface of the component for resisting the wear by providing a hardness, a lubrication, and a thermal conductivity to the component, wherein the metallic nanostructured surface comprises a nanocrystalline alloy including nanograin twins of metallic crystals of a body-centered cubic (BCC),a face-centered cubic (FCC), or a hexagonal closest packed (HCP) crystal system of at least one metal.

An apparatus, comprising:

• a machine component;
• a surface of the machine component subject to wear;
• and
• a metallic nanostructure on the surface to resist the wear and to provide a hardness, a lubrication, and a thermal conductivity to the surface, wherein the metallic nanostructure comprises nano-size metallic grains and atomic layer thick ceramics.

An apparatus, comprising:

• a machine component;
• a surface of the machine component subject to wear;
• and
• a metallic nanostructure on the surface to resist the wear and to provide a hardness, a lubrication, and a thermal conductivity to the surface, wherein the metallic nanostructure comprises aluminum nitride surrounding nano-size grain aluminum.