Controllable in situ fabrication of self-lubricating nanocomposite coating for light alloys

Intrinsic friction and corrosion issues of light alloys impede their application in tribological and corrosive environments, thus a proper ceramic coating is normally required to overcome these issues for practical engineering deployment. Here, we developed a new approach to fabricate controllable and self-lubricating nanocomposite coating by combining in-situ synthesis of MoS2 and plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO) process. It is found that the coefficient of friction of this new coating is only about a quarter of the coatings obtained by traditional PEO process due to the self-lubricating characteristic of gradient MoS2. More importantly, this ceramic coating exhibits excellent interfacial strengthen through edge-pinning by non coherent, which endows excellent tribological and adhesive properties. This facile technique provides a new strategy to fabricate self-lubricating ceramic coating for light alloys, and is believed to have great potential applications in wide engineering sectors and open new avenues for designing novel alloy systems for extreme conditions. (C) 2022 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The intrinsic friction and corrosion issues of light alloys hinder their application in specific environments. In this study, a controllable and self-lubricating nanocomposite coating was fabricated by combining in-situ synthesis of MoS2 and plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO) process. This coating exhibited excellent tribological and adhesive properties due to the self-lubricating characteristic of gradient MoS2 and edge-pinning by non coherent.