Lubricating performances of graphene oxide and onion-like carbon as water-based lubricant additives for smooth and sand-blasted steel discs

Fenghua Su,Guofu Chen,Ping Huang

doi:10.1007/s40544-018-0237-3

Abstract

Graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets and onion-like carbon (OLC) nanoparticles were synthesized from natural graphite powder and candle soot, respectively, and characterized by transmission electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy. The lubricating performances of GO and OLC as lubricant additives in water were comparatively evaluated using a ball-on-disc tribometer. The effects of sand blasting of a steel disc on its morphology and tribological property were evaluated. The results show that the two nanomaterials, GO and OLC, when used as lubricant additives in water effectively reduce the friction and wear of the sliding discs, which is independent of the disc surface treatment. On applying heavy loads, it is observed that GO exhibits superior friction-reducing and anti-wear abilities compared to those of OLC—a trace amount of GO can achieve a lubricating ability equivalent to that of an abundant amount of OLC. Furthermore, it is observed that sand blasting cannot improve the wear resistance of the treated steel disc, even though the hardness of the disc increased after the treatment. The possible anti-wear and friction-reducing mechanisms of the GO and OLC as lubricant additives in water are discussed based on results for the wear surfaces obtained by scanning electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy

Highlights

Water is an environment-friendly lubricant with a high cooling capacity
The cores of the onion-like carbon (OLC) nanoparticles were not hollow; they exhibited a continuation of the closed cage structure toward the center, similar with the result reported by Choucair et al [29]
In the case of the Graphene oxide (GO), the broadened D peak at 1,340 cm−1 was attributed to the http://friction.tsinghuajournals.com∣www.Springer.com/journal/40544 | Friction reduction in size of in-plane sp2 domains in graphite induced by the creation of defects, vacancies, and distortions of the sp2 domains after the complete oxidation [32, 33]

Summary

Introduction

Water is an environment-friendly lubricant with a high cooling capacity. Its low viscosity and corrosive property make it unacceptable in most tribological applications. Studies have been performed to improve the lubricating performance of water-based lubricants [1,2,3]. A promising approach is to develop high-quality additives without environmentally harmful compositions. Various carbon nanomaterials, such as carbon nanotubes, graphene, graphite alkyne, diamond, and carbon black, were extensively employed as lubricant additives in water and exhibited superior anti-wear and friction-reducing properties [4,5,6,7,8,9,10]. Peng et al [5] confirmed that

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