TY - JOUR A1 - Hübert, Thomas A1 - Hattermann, Hilke A1 - Griepentrog, Michael T1 - Sol-gel-derived nanocomposite coatings filled with inorganic fullerene-like WS2 JF - Journal of sol gel science and technology N2 - Silica coatings filled with nanoscaled inorganic fullerene-like tungsten disulphide (IF-WS2) have been prepared through a sol–gel process on stainless steel substrates, and the structure and mechanical properties have been investigated. The precursor was prepared from a mixture of colloidal silica, 3-glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane (GLYMO), water and ethanol, adjusted to pH 4 with HNO3. In this solution WS2 is dispersed and in some cases immediately before coating ethylenediamine (ED) is added. The stainless steel substrates are dip-coated, dried in air and heat-treated in the temperature range of either 150–360 °C in air or up to 900 °C in vacuum. The solidification process is followed by differential thermal analysis (DTA). The resulting brown coloured coatings have a thickness of 1.5–4 µm. Scanning electron microscopy investigations (SEM) show that the WS2 nanoparticles are embedded as small aggregates in a hybrid silica matrix. X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements prove that most of the tungsten disulphide embedded in the matrix can be protected against oxidation even after curing the samples at temperatures up to 900 °C. Hardness and modulus of the hybrid silica films were measured through an instrumented indentation test. Increasing the temperature of the heat treatment yields an increase of hardness from 0.3 to 1 GPa and of modulus from 3 to 17 GPa. The amount of up to 10 wt.% WS2 in the coatings has no remarkable influence on hardness and modulus of the samples. KW - Nanocomposites KW - Tungsten disulphide KW - Sol-gel KW - Mechanical properties PY - 2009 DO - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10971-009-1896-3 SN - 0928-0707 SN - 1573-4846 VL - 51 IS - 3 SP - 295 EP - 300 PB - Kluwer Academic Publ. CY - Dordrecht AN - OPUS4-19713 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -