Tribological Properties of Multilayer TiN and MoS2 Thin Films

This paper presents tribological behavior of titanium nitride and molybdenum sulfide thin film coatings on a workpiece. The titanium nitride films were coated by RF magnetron sputtering method and molybdenum sulfide films were coated by vacuum thermal evaporation. Titanium nitride is a hard ceramic materials, which has excellent mechanical properties. However, the friction coefficient of titanium nitride is rather high. To improve the tribological properties of the titanium nitride films, a thin layer of molybdenum sulfide was coated as a solid lubricant. The results showed a substantial decrease in the coefficient of friction of dual-layered MoS2 over TiN compared with the titanium nitride film or as-received aluminum substrate. The low coefficient of friction can directly be correlated to the MoS2 layer whereas the TiN film acts as a robust and durable base material. The coefficient of friction was measured using a pin on a disc tribometer with a steel pin as the counter face. Our results demonstrated that the coating of MoS2 over TiN has a low coefficient of friction. In addition, it was also found that wear resistance of MoS2 coated TiN was better than both MoS2 and TiN films.

Tribological Properties of Multilayer TiN and MoS2 Thin Films Article (Faculty180)