YSZ/MoS2 self-lubricating coating fabricated by thermal spraying and hydrothermal reaction

Abstract Thermal sprayed ceramic coatings have extensively been used in components to protect them against friction and wear. However, the poor lubricating ability severely limits their application. Herein, yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ)/MoS 2 composite coatings were successfully fabricated on steel substrate with the combination of thermal spraying technology and hydrothermal reaction. Results show that the synthetic MoS 2 powders are composed of numbers of ultra-thin sheets (about 7 ~ 8 nm), and the sheet has obvious lamellar structure. After vacuum impregnation and hydrothermal reaction, numbers of MoS 2 powders, look like flowers, generate inside the plasma sprayed YSZ coating. Moreover, the growing point of the MoS 2 flower is the intrinsic micro-pores of YSZ coating. The friction and wear tests under high vacuum environment indicate that the composite coating has an extremely long lifetime (> 100,000 cycles) and possesses a low friction coefficient less than 0.1, which is lower by about 0.15 times than that of YSZ coating. Meanwhile, the composite shows an extremely low wear rate (2.30 × 10 −7 mm 3 N −1 m −1 ) and causes slight wear damage to the counterpart. The excellent lubricant and wear-resistant ability are attributed to the formation of MoS 2 transfer films and the ultra-smooth of the worn surfaces of hybrid coatings.