Wear and Corrosion Properties of Pure Mo Coating Layer Manufactured by Atmospheric Plasma Spray Process

Abstract

A pure molybdenum (Mo) coating layer was manufactured by using the atmospheric plasma spray (APS) process and its wear and corrosion characteristics were investigated in this study. A Mo coating layer was prepared to a thickness of approximately 480 μm, and it had sound physical properties with a porosity of 2.9% and hardness of 434 Hv. Room temperature dry wear characteristics were measured through a ball-on-disk test under load conditions of 5 N, 10 N and 15 N. Based on the coefficient of friction graph at 5 N and 10 N, the oxides formed during wear functioned as a wear lubricant, thereby confirming an increase in wear resistance. However, at 15 N, wear behavior changed, and wear occurred due to splat pulling out. A potentiodynamic polarization test was conducted under an artificial seawater atmosphere, and Ecorr and Icorr measured 0.717 V and 7.2E-5 A/cm2, respectively. Corrosion mainly occurred at the splat boundary and pores that were present in the initial state. Based on the findings above, the potential application of APS Mo coating material was also discussed.