Tribological and Mechanical Properties of Nanostructured Solid Lubricant W-Se-C Coatings Produced by Laser Deposition

摘要

The method of pulsed laser deposition was used to produce thin film coatings from tungsten dis-elenide and carbon. Pulsed laser deposition enables the formation of a nanocomposite structure, which contains nanocrystals of WSe_2, amorphous carbon, and ball-shaped β-W nanoparticles with the WSe_2 nanoshell. Friction, wear, and mechanical properties of the coatings depend on the carbon concentration. The increase in the carbon concentration resulted in the improvement of wear resistance and mechanical properties but noticeably deteriorated antifriction properties. The wear dynamics was investigated and it was established that nanostructure-based features of the coatings became apparent during friction on a hard underlayer of diamond-like carbon. A thin composite W-Se-C layer ensured prolonged friction with a low coefficient of friction and with very low wear. This tribological behavior may be attributed to the rotation of encapsulated nanoballs located in the contact region of the friction pair.