Carbon dots grafted by oil-soluble polymer brushes derived from bis-alkyl chain monomers as a lubricant additive of poly-α-olefin with outstanding friction-reducing, anti-wear and anti-rust properties

Abstract

The application of carbon dots (CDs) as lubricant additives of nonpolar oils such as poly-α-olefins (PAOs) has been greatly hindered because most of CDs derived from the bottom-up method were water-soluble. In this work, the oil-soluble polymer brushes grafted CDs were synthesized by the surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization of bis-alkyl chain monomers. As expected, the polymer grafted CDs exhibited the excellent long-term dispersion stability in PAO owing to the principle of similar compatibility. As the lubricant additives of PAO4, the CDs showed the best friction-reducing and anti-wear properties when the polymerization time was 2 h. Adding 1 wt% of CDs could make the coefficient of friction and wear volume of PAO4 reduce by 64.1 % and 49.6 %, respectively. Moreover, both the tribological properties and anti-rust performance of CDs were superior to the commercially used ZDDP. The distinguished friction-reducing and anti-wear properties of CDs were attributed to the synergistic lubrication of carbon cores and polymer brushes. The rolling, repairing and polishing action of carbon cores, together with the tribo-reactions of polymer brushes, resulted in the formation of tough lubricating films on the rubbing surfaces, thereby tremendously alleviating the friction and wear of tribopair. The impressive anti-rust performance of CDs could be assigned to their strong adsorption ability on metallic surfaces. The above results are hopeful to provide useful information for the design and development of efficient multifunctional additives such as polymer-grafted metallic or inorganic nanomaterials.