Preparation and Tribological Properties of WS2 Hexagonal Nanoplates and Nanoflowers

Xianghua Zhang; Jiangtao Wang; Hongxiang Xu; Heng Tan; Xia Ye

doi:10.3390/nano9060840

Preparation and Tribological Properties of WS₂ Hexagonal Nanoplates and Nanoflowers

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2019 Jun 1;9(6):840. doi: 10.3390/nano9060840.

Authors

Xianghua Zhang¹, Jiangtao Wang², Hongxiang Xu³, Heng Tan⁴, Xia Ye⁵

Affiliations

¹ School of Mechanical Engineering, Jiangsu University of Technology, Changzhou 213001, China. zxh@jsut.edu.cn.
² School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jiangsu University of Technology, Changzhou 213001, China. jxwjt@jsut.edu.cn.
³ School of Mechanical Engineering, Jiangsu University of Technology, Changzhou 213001, China. jxxhx@jsut.edu.cn.
⁴ School of Mechanical Engineering, Jiangsu University of Technology, Changzhou 213001, China. tanheng@jsut.edu.cn.
⁵ School of Mechanical Engineering, Jiangsu University of Technology, Changzhou 213001, China. yexia@jsut.edu.cn.

Abstract

This paper presents the facile synthesis of two different morphologies of WS₂ nanomaterials-WS₂ hexagonal nanoplates and nanoflowers-by a sulfurization reaction. The phases and morphology of the samples were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The tribological performance of the two kinds of WS₂ nanomaterials as additives in paraffin oil were measured using a UMT (Universal Mechanical Tester)-2 tribotester. The results demonstrated that the friction and wear performance of paraffin oil can be greatly improved with the addition of WS₂ nanomaterials, and that the morphology and content of WS₂ nanomaterials have a significant effect on the tribological properties of paraffin oil. The tribological performance of lubricating oil was best when the concentration of the WS₂ nanomaterial additive was 0.5 wt %. Moreover, the paraffin oil with added WS₂ nanoflowers exhibited better tribological properties than paraffin oil with added WS₂ hexagonal nanoplates. The superior tribological properties of WS₂ nanoflowers can be attributed to their special morphology, which contributes to the formation of a uniform tribo-film during the sliding process.

Keywords: WS2; lubricant additives; tribological properties.