Abstract
Self-lubricating films are of immense importance in various tribological applications. Nanoparticles are often used as the lubricating component in such films. Inorganic fullerene-like (IF) nanoparticles of WS2 have been used in the past for variety of tribological applications including for self-lubricating polymer and metallic films. IF nanoparticles from MoS2 with superior tribological behavior were reported in the past. However, such nanoparticles, which are available in minute amounts, were not applied for self-lubricating coatings in the past. In the current work, inorganic fullerene-like nanoparticles of MoS2 (IF-MoS2) were co-evaporated with titanium (cobalt) on metal substrates. The films were characterized by different techniques and were shown to have good adhesion to the underlying substrate. Furthermore, tribological tests indicated that such coatings exhibit improved friction coefficient (roughly 0.1) and very small wear under relatively high load.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 116-125 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | Surface & Coatings Technology |
| Volume | 353 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 15 Nov 2018 |
Funding
We are thankful to Alexander Yoffe and Yoram Rotblat for their assistance with the operation of the PVD system and Hila Shalom for some of the SEM/EDS analyses. We acknowledge the support of the KAMIN program of the Innovation Authority grant No. 713080010141; The Perlman Family Foundation; the Kimmel Center for Nanoscale Science grant No. 43535000350000; the Irving and Azelle Waltcher Foundations in honor of Prof. M. Levy grant No. 720821. The electron microscopy analyses were performed at the Irving and Cherna Moscowitz Center for Nano and Bio-Nano Imaging of the Weizmann Institute of Science.