Tribological Properties of Nanostructured Iron Sulfide Coating Deposited by Plasma Spraying

Nanostructured iron sulfide coating was deposited by atmospheric plasma spraying. The friction and wear properties of the coating were investigated on an MHK-500 friction and wear tester under both oil lubrication and dry friction condition. The surface morphology, microstructure and worn surface morphologies of the coating were characterized with scanning electron microscopy. The phase composition of the coating was determined by X-ray diffraction. The coating was mainly composed of FeS, a small quantity of Fel1-xS and oxide. The coating was formed by small particles with size in the range of 50 - 100 nm. The plasma-sprayed nanostructured iron sulfide coating exhibited better tribological performance than GCr15 steel. Especially under oil lubrication, the friction coefficient of the nanostructured iron sulfide coating was half of that of GCr15 steel, the wear widths of the coating was also reduce to nearly half of that of GCr15 steel under high load. The failure of the coating was mainly due to plastic deformation under both oil lubrication and drv friction.