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Tribological properties of few-layer graphene oxide sheets as oil-based lubricant additives

  • Friction and Wear
  • Published:
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Abstract

The performance of a lubricant largely depends on the additives it involves. However, currently used additives cause severe pollution if they are burned and exhausted. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a new generation of green additives. Graphene oxide (GO) consists of only C, H and O and thus is considered to be environmentally friendly. So the tribological properties of the few-layer GO sheet as an additive in hydrocarbon base oil are investigated systematically. It is found that, with the addition of GO sheets, both the coefficient of friction (COF) and wear are decreased and the working temperature range of the lubricant is expanded in the positive direction. Moreover, GO sheets has better performance under higher sliding speed and the optimized concentration of GO sheets is determined to be 0.5wt%. After rubbing, GO is detected on the wear scars through Raman spectroscopy. And it is believed that, during the rubbing, GO sheets adhere to the sliding surfaces, behaving like protective films and preventing the sliding surfaces from contacting with each other directly. This paper proves that the GO sheet is an effective lubricant additive, illuminates the lubrication mechanism, and provides some critical parameters for the practical application of GO sheets in lubrication.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Tribology, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Zhe Chen, Yuhong Liu & Jianbin Luo

Authors
  1. Zhe Chen
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  2. Yuhong Liu
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  3. Jianbin Luo
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jianbin Luo.

Additional information

Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos. 51335005, 51321092), National Key Basic Research Program of China (973 Program, Grant No. 2013CB934200), and the Foundation for the Supervisor of Beijing Excellent Doctoral Dissertation(Grant No. 20111000305)

Biographical notes

CHEN Zhe, born in 1988, is currently a PhD candidate at State Key Laboratory of Tribology, Tsinghua University, China. He received his bachelor degree from Northwestern Polytechnical University, China, in 2011. His research interests include nanotribology and 2D nanometerials.

LIU Yuhong, born in 1978, is currently an associate professor at State Key Laboratory of Tribology, Tsinghua University, China. She received her PhD degree from Instituent of Chemistry, CAS, China, in 2005. Her research interests include nanotribology and 2D nanometerials.

LUO Jianbin, born in 1961, is a member of Chinese Academy of Sciences and a professor at State Key Laboratory of Tribology, Tsinghua University, China. He has long been engaged in nanotribology research and nanomanufacturing.

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Chen, Z., Liu, Y. & Luo, J. Tribological properties of few-layer graphene oxide sheets as oil-based lubricant additives. Chin. J. Mech. Eng. 29, 439–444 (2016). https://doi.org/10.3901/CJME.2015.1028.129

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.3901/CJME.2015.1028.129

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