Effect of modulation periods on the mechanical and tribological performance of MoS2-TiL/MoS2-TiH multilayer coatings

MoS2–TiL/MoS2–TiH multilayered coatings (where L and H represent low- and high-powered of the sputtering titanium target) exhibit excellent mechanical and tribological performance owing to their multilayered microstructure. Herein, the effect of two different modulation periods on the mechanical and tribological performance of the multilayered coatings was studied. The performance of the coatings were found to depend on modulation periods of single layer thickness and thickness ratio respectively. When the thickness ratio of MoS2–TiL layer to MoS2–TiH layer is fixed with different number of layers, the adverse effects of the interface outweigh the beneficial effect; thus, the mechanical and tribological performance of the multilayered coatings are improved with an increase in the single layer thickness. When the effect of the multilayer interfaces on the studied coatings is similar with the same number of layers, the MoS2–TiH layer has more impact on the hardness of the MoS2–TiL/MoS2–TiH multilayered coatings, whereas the MoS2–TiL layer substantially affects the friction and wear resistance.