Chemical and mechanical properties of ZDDP antiwear films on steel and thermal spray coatings studied by XANES spectroscopy and nanoindentation techniques

X-ray Absorption Near Edge Structure (XANES) has been used to characterize the chemistry of tribochemical wear pads generated from a paraffinic base oil with a zinc-dialkyl-dithiophosphate additive on steel surfaces and high-velocity oxygen fuel (HVOF) thermal spray coatings. The phosphorus K- and L-edge XANES spectra show that the tribofilms formed on steel and the HVOF coatings have the same chemical nature. Also, mechanical properties of these tribofilms were examined by nanoindentation techniques using both Hysitron and Interfacial Force Microscopy (IFM) instruments. The elastic moduli extracted from indentation force-displacement (f-d) curves have demonstrated that tribofilms on steel and HVOF coatings have similar surface topography and mechanical properties.