Tribological Performance of MoS₂/Pb-Ti Nano-multilayer Coating Applied in Marine Atmospheric Environment of South China Sea

The pure MoS₂ coating always performs high friction coefficient and short service life caused by severe oxidation after long-time storage in hot and humid atmospheric environment. The MoS₂/Pb-Ti nano-multilayer coating was deposited by unbalanced magnetron sputtering system to improve the tribological performance and oxidation resistance. This research was the first study on the derivation of chemical components and tribological performances of the MoS₂/Pb-Ti nano-multilayer coating and pure MoS₂ coating after 6 months exposure in marine atmospheric environment in the South China Sea. The results demonstrate that compared with pure MoS₂ coating, the MoS₂/Pb-Ti nano-multilayer coating performed better antioxidant property, and the multilayer coating still showed low friction coefficient and wear rate, which was hardly affected by the harsh storage condition. The significant improvement in tribological properties of multilayer coating was investigated by various analytical techniques (NanoIndenter, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectrometer, transmission electron microscopy). And it is found that the heterogenous interfaces existing in multilayer coating altered the structure of crystal face, and improved the compactness and mechanical properties of coating. In addition, the alloy phase in Pb-Ti layer also played an important role in inhibiting oxidation of MoS₂.