Tribological performance of steel-steel contact tribosurfaces by using nano-enhanced biolubricant.

Mineral oil–based lubricants play an important role to serve industrial lubrication and cooling requirements. However, these oils are environmentally unacceptable due to their negative impact on human health and environmental ecology. The current research focuses on generating an eco-friendly oil which has enhanced lubrication properties. In this work, a four-ball tribometer was employed for friction and wear evaluation of a palm oil-commercial grade oil (PO-CGO) blend, which consisted of various weight fractions of functionalized multiwall carbon nanotubes (FMWCNTs) to lubricate steel-steel contacts of ball specimens mounted in tribometer. The specimens were lubricated by using 0.1 wt.% FMWCNT blended PO-CGO oil showed about 38% and 35% reduction in wear scar diameter and wear volume respectively compared to CGO lubricated test samples. Furthermore, roughness values of specimens obtained from atomic focal microscope (AFM) by using 0.1 wt.% nanomaterial blended lubricant showed about 88% lower values than that of CGO lubricated specimens. Raman spectroscopy and SEM/EDS results revealed the details of tribofilm formation and corresponding chemical composition on sliding contact surfaces of ball specimens subjected to PO-CGO and FMWCNT-blended oil lubrication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]