Modified graphene as novel lubricating additive with high dispersion stability in oil

Abstract

Graphene is a promising material as a lubricant additive for reducing friction and wear. Here, a dispersing method which combines chemical modification of graphene by octadecylamine and dicyclohexylcarbodiimide with a kind of effective dispersant has been successfully developed to achieve the remarkable dispersion stability of graphene in base oil. The stable dispersion time of modified graphene (0.5 wt%) with dispersant (1 wt%) in PAO-6 could be up to about 120 days, which was the longest time reported so far. At the same time, the lubricant exhibits a significant improvement of tribological performance for a steel ball to plate tribo-system with a normal load of 2 N. The coefficient of friction between sliding surfaces was ~0.10 and the depth of wear track on plate was ~21 nm, which decreased by about 44% and 90% when compared to pure PAO-6, respectively. Furthermore, the analysis of the lubricating mechanisms in regard to the sliding-induced formation of nanostructured tribo-film has been contacted by using Raman spectra and TEM.