Integration of bubble phobicity, gas sensing and friction alleviation into a versatile MoS/SnO/CNF heterostructure by an impressive, simple and effective method

The engineering of composite surfaces and interfaces of materials at the micro/nano-hierarchical level with multiple functionalities is attracting increasing attention due to their biomimetic technological applications, especially the self-cleaning with gas bubbles, gas sensing and sustainable anti-friction performances. Herein, the ternary MoS2/SnO2/CNF (CNF: Carbon nanofiber) was designed and assembled by an in situ facile method. Interestingly, its microstructure exhibits a necklace-like morphology. The MoS2/SnO2/CNF shows desirable bubble phobicity under water and in a PAO4 environment on various substrates, an acceptable gas-sensing ability to target gas with a detection limit of 5 ppm and fascinating tribological performances for additives in different kinds of base/lubricating oils. These results demonstrate that the necklace-like ternary MoS2/SnO2/CNF structure could have numerous applications in one system and may provide a new perspective in composite surface and interface materials engineering.