TY - JOUR
T1 - Nanotribological investigation of sliding properties of transition metal dichalcogenide thin film coatings
AU - Rapuc, Ales
AU - Simonovic, Kosta
AU - Huminiuc, Teodor
AU - Cavaleiro, Albano
AU - Polcar, Tomas
N1 - Funding Information:
A.R., T.H., A.C., and T.P. were funded by H2020 MSCA ITN project Solution No. 721642. K.S. and T.P. received funding from the project OPVVV Novel nanostructures for engineering applications No. CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_026/0008396. K.S and T.H. received support from CEITEC Nano Research Infrastructure (ID LM2015041, MEYS CR, 2016–2019). A.C. acknowledges support from CEMMPRE – UID/EMS/00285/2020.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 American Chemical Society
PY - 2020/12/2
Y1 - 2020/12/2
N2 - Transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD)-based coatings are known for their low friction performance, which is attributed to the formation of a tribolayer consisting almost exclusively of pure well-ordered TMD. However, the formation of such a tribolayer and its wear track coverage is still unknown. In this study, we employed surface mapping and nanotribological techniques to study the properties of the wear tracks of composite W-S-C coatings. Our analysis revealed that the as-deposited coating consisted of two phases, with significantly different nanoscale frictional properties. We attributed the phases to nanocrystalline WS2 (low friction) and amorphous solution of carbon and WS2 (high friction). The two phases wear at different rates, especially at lower loads, where we observed faster depletion of nanocrystalline WS2. In the wear track, sparse flat WS2 flakes were identified, suggesting that the recrystallization of the WS2 phase occurs only at the spots where the contact pressure is the highest.
AB - Transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD)-based coatings are known for their low friction performance, which is attributed to the formation of a tribolayer consisting almost exclusively of pure well-ordered TMD. However, the formation of such a tribolayer and its wear track coverage is still unknown. In this study, we employed surface mapping and nanotribological techniques to study the properties of the wear tracks of composite W-S-C coatings. Our analysis revealed that the as-deposited coating consisted of two phases, with significantly different nanoscale frictional properties. We attributed the phases to nanocrystalline WS2 (low friction) and amorphous solution of carbon and WS2 (high friction). The two phases wear at different rates, especially at lower loads, where we observed faster depletion of nanocrystalline WS2. In the wear track, sparse flat WS2 flakes were identified, suggesting that the recrystallization of the WS2 phase occurs only at the spots where the contact pressure is the highest.
KW - Atomic force microscopy
KW - nanotribology
KW - Raman mapping
KW - solid lubrication
KW - thin film coatings
KW - transition metal dichalcogenides
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85096534486&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/
U2 - 10.1021/acsami.0c16789
DO - 10.1021/acsami.0c16789
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85096534486
SN - 1944-8244
VL - 12
SP - 54191
EP - 54202
JO - ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
JF - ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
IS - 48
ER -