Temperature-Dependent Friction and Wear of MoS2/Sb2O3/Au Nanocomposites

The temperature-dependent friction and wear of magnetron-sputtered MoS2/Sb2O3/Au nanocomposites was investigated in the range −150 to 150 °C using macroscale experiments. We investigate the origin of recent reports suggesting the existence of a relatively high friction (µ ~ 0.2) transition for these nanocomposites at temperatures below −20 °C, contrasting with the characteristic ultra-low friction behavior (µ < 0.01) for pure and composite MoS2 films in vacuum and inert gas environments at room temperature. We present evidence suggesting that the ability to form and maintain basally oriented low-friction surface films is increasingly compromised with decreasing temperature, and show that low friction is achievable at cryogenic temperatures.