Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) is one of the most broadly utilized solid lubricants with a wide range of applications, including but not limited to those in the aerospace/space industry. Here we present a focused review of solid lubrication with MoS2 by highlighting its structure, synthesis, applications and the fundamental mechanisms underlying its lubricative properties, together with a discussion of their environmental and temperature dependence. An effort is made to cover the main theoretical and experimental studies that constitute milestones in our scientific understanding. The review also includes an extensive overview of the structure and tribological properties of doped MoS2, followed by a discussion of potential future research directions.MoS2 belongs to the family of layered two-dimensional transitional metal dichalcogenides (TMDs). Like graphite and hexagonal boron nitride, its crystal structure consists of covalently bonded sheets, which form stacks that are held together only by weak Van der Waals interactions [16]. It occurs naturally as the mineral molybdenite, an important Mo ore. Due to the strong bonding inplane and weak bonding out-of-plane, mechanical and other properties are highly anisotropic [17], and the stacks can be easily sheared. Single-layer or few-layer (i.e. 2D) MoS2 (analogous to graphene) can be produced and studied individually [18].MoS2 has several different possible structures (polytypes), depending on the bonding within the sheets and the stacks of the sheets. While graphite has a single plane of atoms per sheet, in MoS2 each sheet consists a plane of Mo atoms sandwiched between two planes of S atoms. The single-sheet structure can feature trigonal prismatic coordination around Mo, which is the semiconducting 1H ("hexagonal") structure, or octahedral bonding, which is the metallic 1T ("trigonal") phase. 1H and the ideal 1T each have 3 atoms (MoS2) per unit cell ( Figure 1); however, theoretical calculations with density-functional theory (DFT)[19] and X-ray diffraction (XRD) experiments [20] have shown that in fact 1T is unstable with respect to distortions. The most commonly reported structure is a 3× 3 distortion that triples the unit cell, known as the 1T′ phase [21].Each single-sheet structure can be stacked into a crystal where the next sheet is exactly above the preceding one (AA stacking), producing the 1H, 1T, and 1T′ polytypes. The naturally occurring polytypes in molybdenite, however, are only based on the 1H sheet, and show more complicated stacking [9]. The more common is the 2H structure with 2 sheets per cell in AB stacking, where an S atom in one layer is above an Mo atom in the layer below [22,23]. The less common 3R ("rhombohedral") structure has 3 sheets per cell with ABC stacking [22,24]. These structures are shown in Figure 1. Mo-S bond lengths are around 2.4 Å for all polytypes [25]. DFT calculations show only very small energy differences between the 2H and 3R phases [25]. This insensitivity to stacking, and the low surface energy for 2H-MoS2 of 47 mJ/m 2 =...

We present a review of superlubricity: the state of ultra-low friction between surfaces in relative motion. Various approaches to achieving this state are considered in a broad sense, including structural superlubricity, superlubricity via normal force control, and contact actuation, as well as thermolubricity, liquid superlubricity, and quantum lubricity. An overview of the physical fundamentals associated with each approach is presented, with particular emphasis on recent theoretical and experimental developments that constitute milestones in our scientific understanding. The review also includes a discussion of perspectives on future research in the context of existing challenges. It is projected that interest in superlubricity from the basic science and engineering communities will continue to accelerate in the near future, accompanied by a transition from fundamental studies to technologically relevant applications.

Ultra-low friction can be achieved with 2D materials, particularly graphene and MoS2. The nanotribological properties of these different 2D materials have been measured in previous atomic force microscope (AFM) experiments sequentially, precluding immediate and direct comparison of their frictional behavior. Here, friction is characterized at the nanoscale using AFM experiments with the same tip sliding over graphene, MoS2, and a graphene/MoS2 heterostructure in a single measurement, repeated hundreds of times, and also measured with a slowly varying normal force. The same material systems are simulated using molecular dynamics (MD) and analyzed using density-functional theory (DFT) calculations. In both experiments and MD simulations, graphene consistently exhibits lower friction than the MoS2 monolayer and the heterostructure. In some cases, friction on the heterostructure is lower than that on the MoS2 monolayer. Quasi-static MD simulations and DFT calculations show that the origin of the friction contrast is the difference in energy barriers for a tip sliding across each of the three surfaces.

Atomic-scale friction measured for asperities sliding on 2D materials depend on the direction of scanning relative to the material's crystal lattice. Here, nanoscale friction anisotropy of wrinkle-free bulk and monolayer MoS2 is characterized using atomic force microscopy and molecular dynamics simulations. Both techniques show 180 o periodicity (twofold symmetry) of atomic-lattice stick-slip friction vs. the tip's scanning direction with respect to the MoS2 surface. The 60 o periodicity (six-fold symmetry) expected from the MoS2 surface's symmetry is only recovered in simulations where the sample is rotated, as opposed to the scanning direction changed. All observations are explained by the potential energy landscape of the tip

Despite extensive research on the tribological properties of MoS2, the frictional characteristics of other members of the transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) family have remained relatively unexplored. To understand the effect of the chalcogen on the tribological behavior of these materials and gain broader general insights into factors controlling friction at the nanoscale, we compared the friction force behavior for a nanoscale single asperity sliding on MoS2, MoSe2, and MoTe2 in both bulk and monolayer forms through a combination of atomic force microscopy (AFM) experiments and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Experiments and simulations showed that, under otherwise identical conditions, MoS2 has the highest friction among these materials and MoTe2 the lowest. Simulations complemented by theoretical analysis based on the Prandtl-Tomlinson model revealed that the observed friction contrast between theTMDs was attributable to their lattice constants, which differed depending on the chalcogen. While the corrugation amplitudes of the energy landscapes are similar for all three materials, larger lattice constants permit the tip to slide more easily across correspondingly wider saddle points in the potential energy landscape. These results emphasize the critical role of the lattice constant, which can be the determining factor for frictional behavior at the nanoscale.