Investigation of the effect of thermal oxidation treatment applied to MoS2 films grown by magnetron sputtering method on structural and tribological properties

The aim of this study is to investigate the structural, mechanical and tribological changes of the newly modified film formed by the thermal oxidation at different temperatures of MoS2 films, which are widely used as solid lubricants in recent years. It is aimed that the new film have lower friction coefficient, less brittle, high hardness, low wear speed than MoS2 film. The MoS2 coatings were produced on AISI D2 tool steel substrates by using the closed field unbalanced magnetron sputtering system (CFUBMS). Structural properties of MoS2 films were determined by XRD, SEM, tribological properties were investigated in atmospheric environment by Pin-on-disc wear test, and mechanical properties were obtained by Vickers microhardness test. Our results revealed that the wear speeds of the films differ depend on the oxidation temperature and load applied. The lowest wear speed was 1.97x10-8 mm3 / Nm by applying 4 N load at 350°C. Additionally, while the highest hardness value was determined with 655 Vickers at 400°C, the lowest friction coefficient was recorded as μ= 0.005 under 1N load in oxidized film at 350°C