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Mechanical and tribological properties of sputter deposited nanostructured Cr-WS2 solid lubricant coatings

IR@NAL: CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories, Bangalore

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Title Mechanical and tribological properties of sputter deposited nanostructured Cr-WS2 solid lubricant coatings
 
Creator Deepthi, B
Barshilia, Harish C
Rajam, KS
Konchady, Manohar
Pai, Devdas
Sankar, Jagannathan
 
Subject Chemistry and Materials (General)
 
Description Solid lubricant coatings of WS2 and Cr–WS2 (15–50 at.% Cr) prepared using an unbalanced magnetron sputtering system were evaluated for their mechanical and tribological properties. Nanoindentation results indicated that addition of Cr helped in improving the mechanical properties and the elastic recovery ability of Cr–WS2 coatings. The adhesive strengths of Cr–WS2 coatings were evaluated using a nanoscratch tester and from the nanoscratch profiles, critical load values and optical images, it was evident that the adhesion of Cr–WS2 coatings increased with an increase in the Cr content. Further analysis of the nanoscratch data indicated that WS2 coatings exhibited large amount of plastic deformation compared to Cr–WS2 coatings which showed a combination of elastic–plastic deformation. However, micro-tribometer measurements at a load of 2 N showed that the tribological properties of Cr–WS2 coatings deteriorated with an increase in the Cr content. For example, Cr–WS2 coatings prepared at Cr content ≥33 at.% failed after a sliding distance of 1 m. On the other hand, WS2 and Cr–WS2 coatings prepared at low Cr contents (15–23 at.% Cr) exhibited a stable friction coefficient (50–60% relative humidity) in the range of 0.10–0.13 for a sliding distance of 14 m. Micro-Raman spectroscopy data of the worn films taken after a sliding distance of 14 m indicated the presence of WS2 transfer films for WS2 and Cr–WS2 coatings prepared at low Cr contents. For Cr–WS2 coatings with Cr content ≥33 at.%, the worn films consisted predominantly of WO3. After an extended sliding distance of 50 m, Cr–WS2 coatings (15–23 at.% Cr) outperformed WS2 coating which failed after 20 m. Further, the coatings prepared at low Cr contents did not show any failure even after a sliding distance of 200 m. At ahigher load of 7 N, Cr–WS2 coating with 15 at.% Cr exhibited the best performance with a friction coefficient of 0.07 up to a sliding distance of 72 m. These results indicate that the amount of Cr in the WS2 matrix needsto be controlled judiciously to obtain improved mechanical and tribological properties in Cr–WS2 solid lubricant coatings.
 
Publisher Elsevier Publisher
 
Date 2010
 
Type Journal Article
PeerReviewed
 
Format application/pdf
 
Identifier http://nal-ir.nal.res.in/9756/1/Cr%2DWS2%2DMechanical.pdf
Deepthi, B and Barshilia, Harish C and Rajam, KS and Konchady, Manohar and Pai, Devdas and Sankar, Jagannathan (2010) Mechanical and tribological properties of sputter deposited nanostructured Cr-WS2 solid lubricant coatings. Surface and Coatings Technology, 205 . pp. 1937-1946. ISSN 0257-8972
 
Relation http://nal-ir.nal.res.in/9756/