Tribological properties and mechanisms of sulfide layer prepared by glow discharge

Sulfide layers, with porous and uneven surface and formed randomly by nano-grains, were prepared on the surface of AISI 1045 steel by low-temperature ion sulfuration. The tribological properties, such as friction-reduction, wear-resistance and anti-scuffing of the sulfide layers were investigated systematically on a ball-on-disc tester of model QP-100 under oil lubrication. The results showed that the tribological properties of sulfide layers were superior to that of the unsulfurized ones. AFM and SEM+EDX were used to examine the morphologies and compositions of surface, cross-section and wear scars. XPS was utilized to detect the valence states of boundary. XRD was employed to analyze the phase structure.