In-Vacuo, tribological properties of high-rate sputtered MoS2 applied to metal and chemical substates

Studies of the tribological properties of molybdenum disulphide deposited at the high rates afforded by magnetron sputtering have shown such films to exhibit low friction and high endurance under vacuum. However such studies have mostly been confined to bearing steels. This paper reports on the extension of such studies by presenting measurements of friction coefficient and endurance obtained for thin films of high-rate molybdenum disulphide applied to substrates of 440C steel, 52100 steel, titanium alloy 318 and silicon nitride. The results are interpreted in terms of substrate-related parameters such as film adhesion and elastic modulus of substrate materials. Preliminary evidence relating the degree of film adhesion to the existence of interfacial chemical compounds, identified using surface analytical techniques (XPS, SIMS), is presented