Thermal contact conductance of molybdenum-sulphide-coated joints at low temperature

The effectiveness of Molybdenum-sulphide (MoS2) coating on aluminum stainless steel contacts at different interface temperatures and loads was determined. The thermocouples were calibrated between 200 and 300 K using a high-accuracy, dual-temperature, dry-block calibrator. Higher conductance is obtained with MoS2 coated over aluminum than with stainless steal. The results show a variation in contact conductance with temperature for bare joints, which is similar to MoS2-coated joint. It is also seen that the bare joint has a larger value of conductance than the anodized uncoated joint and the rate of change of contact conductance with temperature is higher for the nonanodized joint. The thickness of coating is not observed to significantly influence the hysteresis zone while the hysteresis zone is larger compared with MoS2-coated samples for uncoated samples.