A novel carbon nanotube ink as a lubricant for extreme conditions

GERMAN PRIETO; BRUNO PILOTTI; W. R. TUCKART; MARIANA DENNEGHY

Xi?an

Congreso; 2nd International Conference on Graphene and Novel Nanomaterials (GNN 2020); 2020

NPU-NCP Joint International Research Centre on Advanced Nanomaterials and Defects Engineering

In high demanding applications, such as oil extraction, mining equipment, or aerospace components, lubrication using oils or greases is sometimes not possible, due to the elevated contact stresses involved, high temperatures, low sliding speeds, high vacuum, and even radiation damage. In these kinds of environments, solid lubricants are often the only available choice for preventing excessive wear and reducing friction between sliding surfaces.For this purpose, a novel and eco-friendly method for dispersing carbon nanotubes and metallic sulfide nanoparticles were developed. These dispersions were used to generate layers of nanoparticles in the form of soft coatings that prevented direct metal-to-metal contact and lowered the friction coefficient. The obtained soft coatings were evaluated in a reciprocating tribometer under different atmospheric conditions, to analyze the influence of ambient humidity on their frictional response and durability. Wear surfaces were examined using SEM-EDS and Raman microspectrometry.The obtained results have shown that carbon nanotube coatings deposited with this method have excellent lubricant properties under a wide range of conditions, providing low friction coefficients and wear protection of steel substrates.