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Structural, Mechanical, and Tribological Properties of WS2-Al Nanocomposite Film for Space Application

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Abstract

In this paper, WS2-Al nanocomposite films were deposited by closed-field unbalanced magnetron sputtering to improve the microstructure and wear resistance of pure WS2 film. Results revealed that pure WS2 film presented a columnar microstructure, but the growth of WS2 platelets could be significantly suppressed by doping Al. Correspondingly, the WS2-Al composite film showed a dense fiber-like microstructure at low Al content (~ 3 at.%) and a featureless one at higher Al content (~ 6–12 at.%). The film densification resulted in a significantly improved hardness from ~ 0.3 GPa for pure WS2 film to 2.9 GPa for WS2-3 at.% Al film and to 4.7–5.7 GPa for WS2 composite films with higher Al contents of ~ 6–12 at.%, but the composite films with higher Al contents were brittle. As a result, only the composite film with Al content of ~ 3 at.% exhibited a much better wear resistance than pure WS2 film. In vacuum environment, the wear life of WS2-3 at.% Al composite film about 1.5 × 106 cycles was much higher than that of pure WS2 film ~ 6.5 × 105 cycles, exhibiting a potential application in space technology.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for the financial support provided by China National Natural Science Foundation (Grant Nos. 51575508 and 51575509).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Solid Lubrication, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000, People’s Republic of China

    Xiaoming Gao, Yanlong Fu, Dong Jiang, Desheng Wang, Jun Yang, Lijun Weng, Ming Hu & Jiayi Sun

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  1. Xiaoming Gao
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  2. Yanlong Fu
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  3. Dong Jiang
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Correspondence to Ming Hu or Jiayi Sun.

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Gao, X., Fu, Y., Jiang, D. et al. Structural, Mechanical, and Tribological Properties of WS2-Al Nanocomposite Film for Space Application. Tribol Lett 66, 137 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11249-018-1085-z

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