LAUSR

Abstract The easy oxidation and poor corrosion resistance of the sputtered WS2 film would limit its application in spacecraft due to the sharp deterioration of lubricity resulting from the contact with the marine atmosphere inevitably with the increasing space launch from sea or seaside. In this study, the active metal Ta was skillfully introduced into the WS2 film through co-sputtering of the WS2 and Ta targets. The influence of the doped Ta related microstructure regulation on the tribological and anti-corrosion properties of the prepared composite films was investigated. It showed that the incorporation of the active Ta would activate the residual O atoms to form Ta2O5 phase while making the WS2 phase partly oxidized to form the WSxOy and WO3. WS2–Ta composite films with low Ta content exhibited low friction coefficient and long wear life more than 3 times of that for pure WS2 film. In addition, the corrosion resistance of WS2–Ta film was improved by a positive shift of corrosion potential in salt spray with increasing the Ta content, originating from the passivation effect of the Ta2O5 phase and the WSxOy phase in the film as well as the dense structure.