Synthesis of inorganic fullerene-likeWS2 nanoparticles and their lubricating performance

Abstract

A facile, large-scale and low-cost route was used to synthesize inorganic fullerene-like (IF)WS2 nanoparticles by the reaction of sulfur powder (S) and as-preparedWO3 nanoparticles in a hydrogen atmosphere at a heating temperature of500–650 °C. Theas-synthesized IF-WS2 nanoparticles are of a closed hollow cage structure with an average size of about 50 nm. Thecomposition, morphology and structure of the products were characterized by XRD,TEM, FE-SEM, and HRTEM. The influences of the main reaction conditionswere investigated and the possible growth mechanism are proposed. It is worthnoting that through changing the amount of as-prepared composite powder(WO3 and S) and the content of hydrogen, yields ofIF-WS2 in larger scales can accordingly be easily obtained, and such a synthetic route may also beused in the synthesis of other transition IF metal dichalcogenides. Furthermore,tribological experiments emphasized the important role played by these as-synthesizedIF-WS2 nanoparticles in providing excellent lubricating performance, which may bring a muchbrighter future for their applications in the lubricating field, or even arouse great interest ofboth scientists and industrialists for their many other important applications.