Compaction of Hydrophobic Molybdenum Disulfide Coatings for Promoting Tribological Behaviors on Engineering Steel.

Ambient environment has a crucial effect on the lubrication performance of molybdenum disulfide (MoS) coatings. In this work, we fabricated porous MoS coatings via a facile optimized aerosol-assisted chemical vapor deposition (AACVD) method. It is found that the obtained MoS coating demonstrates outstanding antifriction and antiwear lubrication performance with the coefficient of friction (COF) and wear rate as low as 0.035 and 3.4 × 10 mm/Nm in lower humidity (15 ± 5)%, respectively, which is comparable to the lubrication ability of pure MoS in vacuum. In addition, the hydrophobic property of porous MoS coatings is suitable for infusing lubrication oil to achieve stable solid-liquid lubrication in higher humidity (85 ± 2)%. The composite lubrication system shows excellent tribological behavior in both dry and wet environments, which will alleviate the sensitivity of the MoS coating to the environment and ensure the service life of the engineering steel in complex industrial backgrounds.