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Structural design of MoS2-based coatings toward high humidity and wide temperature

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Abstract

The lubrication of pure MoS2 coating for the application in air environment has been commonly limited owing to its loose structure, low hardness, and high humidity sensitivity. To overcome such drawbacks, MoS2/Pb–Ti composite and multilayer coatings were deposited by unbalanced magnetron sputtering system. And subsequently, the oxidation resistance and tribological properties of such MoS2-based coatings were studied after 30 days of exposure under different temperatures (ranging from 20 to 80 °C) with the relative humidity of 80% (RH 80%). We found that pure MoS2 showed poor oxidation resistance after 30 days of exposure and presented high and fluctuating coefficient of friction (COF), leading to the early failure of the coating. In contrast, the oxidation resistance of MoS2 was improved significantly by Pb–Ti co-doping and multilayer design. What is more, the low COF and wear rate were also obtained from the composite and multilayer coatings even after 30 days of exposure at 80 °C, RH 80%, which was related to the compact structure and higher values of hardness to elastic modulus (H/E). More importantly, the high density of interfaces and a relatively strong (002) preferred orientation in the multilayer coating were beneficial to reduce the wear and COF, causing better tribological performance than others.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for financial support from the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars of China (Grant No. 51825505) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. U1737214 and 51775539) and the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province of China (Grant No. LZ17E050004).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Marine Materials and Related Technologies, Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Marine Materials and Protective Technologies, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo, 315201, People’s Republic of China

    Siming Ren, Kedong Shang, Liping Wang & Jibin Pu

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, People’s Republic of China

    Siming Ren

  3. Key Laboratory of Impact and Safety Engineering, Ministry of Education, School of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics, Ningbo University, Ningbo, 315211, People’s Republic of China

    Mingjun Cui

  4. State Key Laboratory of Mechanical System and Vibration, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, People’s Republic of China

    Peiyun Yi

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  1. Siming Ren
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Ren, S., Shang, K., Cui, M. et al. Structural design of MoS2-based coatings toward high humidity and wide temperature. J Mater Sci 54, 11889–11902 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-019-03754-8

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