Mechanical and tribological properties of sputtered Mo-O-N coatings

► The paper reports on friction and wear of sputtered Mo-O-N coatings. ► Correlations between the coating structure and their mechanical and tribological properties were found. ► Friction decreases with increasing Young's modulus, hardness and temperature above 350 °C. ► Incorporation of O in the Mo-O-N coating increases the friction at room temperature. ► Wear is very low of about 0.15 × 10− 6 mm3/Nm.