Compaction of Hydrophobic Molybdenum Disulfide Coatings for Promoting Tribological Behaviors on Engineering Steel

Ambient environment has a crucial effect on the lubricationperformanceof molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) coatings. In this work,we fabricated porous MoS2 coatings via a facile optimizedaerosol-assisted chemical vapor deposition (AACVD) method. It is foundthat the obtained MoS2 coating demonstrates outstandingantifriction and antiwear lubrication performance with the coefficientof friction (COF) and wear rate as low as 0.035 and 3.4 x 10(-7) mm(3)/Nm in lower humidity (15 +/- 5)%,respectively, which is comparable to the lubrication ability of pureMoS(2) in vacuum. In addition, the hydrophobic property ofporous MoS2 coatings is suitable for infusing lubricationoil to achieve stable solid-liquid lubrication in higher humidity(85 +/- 2)%. The composite lubrication system shows excellent tribologicalbehavior in both dry and wet environments, which will alleviate thesensitivity of the MoS2 coating to the environment andensure the service life of the engineering steel in complex industrialbackgrounds.

Automated summary

The ambient environment plays a crucial role in the lubrication performance of MoS2 coatings. Porous MoS2 coatings fabricated through optimized AACVD method exhibit outstanding lubrication performance at low humidity and stable solid-liquid lubrication at high humidity.