Properties of rubbed and Unworn bulk MoS2 Material, MoS2 and MoS2/Titanium Composite Coatings Deposited by Closed Field Unbalanced Magnetron Sputter Ion Plating

Abstract

Magnetron sputtered MoS2 coatings have been widely studied over many decades for tribological space applications, their performance can be greatly improved with the intercalation of elements such as Ti. While MoS2 retains some of the crystalline characteristics found in the original MoS2 sputtering targets, as deposited MoS2/Ti composite coatings are almost completely amorphous or “quasi-amorphous”.
Tribological bidirectional wear tests have been carried out on the MoS2/Ti coatings. A surface sensitive structural analysis performed before and after wear test using Reflection High Energy Electron diffraction (RHEED). Additional analytical techniques including optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy have been used. The development of a preferred orientation within the coatings was observed dependent on the number of wear cycles and the applied load.