Dependence of atomic oxygen resistance and the tribological properties on microstructures of WS 2 films

Shusheng Xu, Xiaoming Gao, Ming Hu, Jiayi Sun, Dong Jiang, Desheng Wang, Feng Zhou, Lijun Weng, Weimin Liu

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

48 Scopus citations

Abstract

To study the anti-oxidation mechanism of WS 2 films, the pure WS 2 , and Al doped WS 2 composite films were prepared via radio frequency sputtering and the atomic oxygen (AO) irradiation tests were conducted using a ground AO simulation facility. The tribological properties of both films before and after AO irradiation were evaluated using vacuum ball-on-disk tribo-tester. The incorporation of a small fraction of Al dopant resulted in microstructure change from loose columnar platelet with significant porosity for pure WS 2 film to very dense structure. In pure WS 2 film, WS 2 exists as crystalline phase with edge-plane preferential orientation, but nanocrystalline and amorphous phase coexists for the WS 2 -Al composite film. Even if large amount of AO transported into the interior through the longitudinal pores, the pure film showed good AO irradiation resistance owing to the basal plane of WS 2 crystal exhibiting much higher anti-oxidation capacity than the edge-plane. The composite film also had excellent AO irradiation resistance due to the formation of effective thinner WO 3 cladding layer in the sub-surface layer. Tribological results revealed that the composite films showed a significantly improved wear resistance, in comparison to the pure WS 2 film. Besides, due to the effective AO resistance, the tribological properties of WS 2 films remained almost unchanged before and after AO irradiation.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)36-43
Number of pages8
JournalApplied Surface Science
Volume298
DOIs
StatePublished - 15 Apr 2014
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Al doping
  • Atomic oxygen resistance
  • Microstructure
  • Tribological properties
  • WS2

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