Ni-B alloys deposited by the electroless method are considered to be hard variants of the electroless nickel family. Inclusion of Mo or W to form ternary alloys improves the thermal stability of electroless nickel coatings. Therefore, in the present work, Ni-B, Ni-B-Mo, and Ni-B-W coatings are deposited; and their tribological behavior at room and high temperatures are investigated. Electroless Ni-B, Ni-B-Mo, and Ni-B-W coatings are deposited on AISI 1040 steel substrates. The coatings are heat treated to improve their mechanical properties and crystallinity. Tribological behavior of the coatings is determined on a pin-on-disc type tribological test setup using various applied normal loads (10-50 N) and sliding speeds (0.25-0.42 m/s) to measure wear and coefficient of friction at different operating temperatures (25 • C-500 • C). Ni-B-W coatings are observed to have higher wear resistance than Ni-B or Ni-B-Mo coatings throughout the temperature range considered. Although for coefficient of friction, no such trend is observed. The worn surface of the coatings at 500 • C is characterized by lubricious oxide glazes, which lead to enhanced tribological behavior compared with that at 100 • C. A study of the coating characteristics such as composition, phase transformations, surface morphology, and microhardness is also carried out prior to tribological tests. Lubricants 2018, 6, 67 2 of 17The Ni-B alloy coating has higher wear resistance and low COF compared with Ni-P alloy [23]. This is attributed to the high hardness, self-lubricating microstructure and columnar growths [24]. Consequently, a reduction in the actual contact area takes place, thereby improving the tribological characteristics [25]. Suitable treatments of Ni-B coatings may even lead to microhardness that is equivalent to chromium [26]. As a result of this, Ni-B coatings are considered to be a suitable alternative to chromium, which has environmental concerns. Friction and wear characteristics of magnesium and aluminium alloys that are widely used commercially could be improved by Ni-B alloy deposition [27]. An improvement of tribological behavior of Ni-B coatings is also achieved on inclusion of W or Mo [28,29]. In fact, co-deposition of nano Al 2 O 3 results in an increase in microhardness bỹ 290 HV 100 [30]. The mass loss and COF of Ni-B-Al 2 O 3 coatings is almost six and two times lower, respectively, in comparison with Ni-B alloy in as-deposited state. Similar results have been also observed on inclusion of B 4 C nano-particles [31]. Impregnation of Ni-B coatings with PTFE (40%) results in a COF as low as <0.1 in non-lubricated, as well as 3.5% NaCl lubricated sliding condition [32]. Electroless Ni-B coatings have been applied in greaseless guns and barrel bores that are subjected to hostile environments proving to be a suitable replacement to chromium [33]. Recent studies have focused attention on duplex and multi-layer coatings that possess intermediate/enhanced tribological characteristics compared with the single layered binary alloys [34,35]....