Functional regulation of Pb-Ti/MoS2 composite coatings for environmentally adaptive solid lubrication

The lubrication of molybdenum disulfide coatings has commonly been limited by the application environments, for instance, the crystal MoS2 are easily affected by water to form MoO3 that causes a higher friction coefficient and short lifetime. Therefore, to improve the tribolgical performance of MoS2 in high humidity condition, the co-doped Pb-Ti/MoS2 composite coatings are deposited by unbalanced magnetron sputtering system. The design of the co-doping elements in MoS2-based coatings can not only maintain the characteristic of low humidity-sensitivity as the Ti/MoS2 coating but also improve the mechanical properties and tribological performance of coatings as a comparison with single-doped ones. Moreover, the ultra-low friction coefficient with a minimum value of 0.006 under the vacuum condition is achieved for Pb-Ti/MoS2 composite coating containing about 4.6 at.% Pb, depending on the densification structure of coating. Intriguingly, the wear behaviours of Pb-Ti/MoS2 composite coatings are in accordance with the variation in H/E (hardness to the elastic modulus) ratio that the coating with higher H/E exhibits lower wear rate. These results demonstrate that the lubricating properties of MoS2 coatings in both humid environment and vacuum condition can be achieved through the Pb and Ti co-doped, which is of great significant for developing MoS2 coatings as the environmentally adaptive lubricants.