The
design and development of self-lubricating materials aid in
enhancing the tribological performance and prolonging the service
life of aero self-lubricating spherical plain bearings. Herein, monodisperse
hollow mesoporous carbon nanospheres (HMCNs) with thin shell thickness
and uniform particle size were synthesized. Afterward, oil-containing
nanocapsules (Oil@HMCNs) were obtained by the impregnation method,
which was an innovative approach to prepare nanoscale capsules. The
Oil@HMCNs were monodispersed, and the oil content rate could reach
45 wt %. The nanocapsules were applied as additives to achieve the
self-lubricating properties of epoxy resin (EP). It was revealed that
the coefficient of friction (COF) and the wear rate of EP in dry friction
can be decreased from 0.56 to 0.084 and from 50.15 × 10–6 to 0.27 × 10–6 mm3/N/m, respectively.
The tribological properties of EP composites in dry friction are better
than those of EP with external oil. According to the analysis of friction
pairs, the antifriction performance was contributed by the released
automatic transmission fluid 6HP (ATF6) from nanocapsules. Meanwhile,
the presence of ATF6 effectively could inhibit fatigue wear, and the
decrease of compressive strength and surface hardness led to plastic
deformation and mechanical polishing. Both resulted in a lower wear
rate of EP. In conclusion, this work explored the application possibility
of hollow mesoporous materials in lubrication. The prepared EP composites
exhibited excellent tribological performances and self-lubricating
properties, which were expected to be applied to self-lubricating
spherical plain bearings and other mechanical parts.