Enhancing AW/EP property of lubricant oil by adding nano Al/Sn particles

Abstract

This paper presents results of experiments to enhance antiwear/extreme pressure (AW/EP) properties of a lubricant oil by adding metal nano particles. In this experiment, Al, Sn and Al + Sn nano-particles were selected as trial additives. The AW and EP properties were evaluated on Four-Ball test machine, while the feature and composition of the wear scar surface were investigated by scan electron microscope (SEM) and energy dispersion spectrum (EDS). The test results show that the AW and EP performance can be improved within a wide load range by adding Al + Sn nanoparticles. Analysis of the enhancement mechanism has also been conducted in this experiment and presented in this paper. It is found that nano-Sn particles can be deposited on the friction surface when the pressure was moderate and act as AW additive. It is also found that the nano-Al particles can be deposited under the condition of high load pressure and act as EP additive. Thus, the AW and EP properties of tested lubricant oil have been improved at the same time due to adding both Al and Sn.

Evaluation of material friction properties using the “Block-on-Ring” apparatus

“…They found several types of nano-particles which decrease the coefficient of friction and the wear very significantly. The similar research with other nano-particles was also done by further authors, for example Liu et al [11], Batter et al [12], Zhao et al [13] and Wu et al [14]. They mainly studied the influence of the load on the wear in the lubricated environment with different nano-particles additives.…”

Tribological Properties of CaCO3 Nanoparticles as an Additive in Lithium Grease

“…In tribology, some nanomaterials were added into lubricating oil/grease to improve extreme pressure, anti-wear and friction-reduction properties [1]. In particular, the tribological properties of metals [2][3][4][5][6][7][8], metal oxides [9][10][11][12][13][14][15], metal sulphides [16][17][18][19], rare earth compounds [20][21][22][23][24], and borides [25][26][27][28] used as lubricating additives have been investigated. They can greatly improve the anti-wear and extreme pressure properties, reduce friction coefficient, and even retard the thermoinduced oxidation of lubricating oil/grease.…”

Friction and wear properties of nano-Si3N4/nano-SiC composite under nanolubricated conditions

“…Tribological studies on nanoparticles have proved that lubricants with different nanoparticles as additives are effective in reducing friction and wear for metallic tribo pairs, whereas limited work has been reported in ceramics. A number of researchers have reported that the addition of nanoparticles, such as copper oxide, molybdenum disulphide, etc., to the conventional lubricants are effective in reducing friction and wear in both metallic and ceramic tribo pairs [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. Nanodiamond additives to mineral oil have already proved effective in friction and wear reduction in various engineering applications, under higher load and low velocity conditions.…”