The carbon nanofibers and molybdenum disulfide (CNF-MoS₂) nanohybrid material was fabricated and incorporated into epoxy resin to form the nanocomposite coating. Firstly, microstructure observation shows that each CNF was uniformly wrapped up with MoS₂ nanosheets, and the nanohybrids were well dispersed in the coating. Then, nanoindentation experiments were carried out to explore the effect of the CNF-MoS₂ nanohybrids on the mechanical properties of the epoxy resin coating. The results demonstrate that elastic modulus, hardness and creep deformation resistance of the CNF-MoS₂ epoxy resin coating are greatly increased in comparison with both pure epoxy resin and MoS₂ epoxy resin coatings. Finally, the underlying mechanism of high-performance tribological behavior of the nanocomposites is analyzed accordingly. It can be concluded that the wrapped structure with MoS₂ sheets growing on the surface of CNF increases the contact area and reduces the friction coefficient of the composite coating, while the wear resistance of the nanocomposite coating is also greatly improved due to the superior high hardness of CNF.

Morphology of CF before and after grafting CNT; wear resistance of CF/EP composite.