Tribological synergies among chemical-modified graphene oxide nanomaterials and a phosphonium ionic liquid as additives of a biolubricant

Abstract

In the present work, antifriction and antiwear synergies of two functionalized graphene oxides (reduced graphene oxide, rGO, and reduced graphene oxide modified with octadecylamine, rGO@ODA) with a phosphonium ionic liquid (IL) as additives of a biodegradable ester base oil, BIOE, were investigated. For this aim, four BIOE nanodispersions were formulated: two nanodispersions without IL and two others with IL (hybrid nanolubricants), being the nanodispersions: BIOE + 0.05 wt% rGO, BIOE + 0.05 wt% rGO@ODA, BIOE + 1 wt% IL + 0.05 wt% rGO and BIOE + 1 wt% IL + 0.05 wt% rGO@ODA, and all of them showing good temporal stability (at least 3 weeks), especially those containing the ionic liquid. Tribological tests, under pure sliding conditions, were made with the aforementioned nanolubricants and with neat BIOE under a 20 N working load. All hybrid and non-hybrid nanolubricants resulted in lower friction coefficients compared to BIOE oil, with the largest friction reduction of 34% achieved by the 1 wt% IL + 0.05 wt% rGO nanolubricant. Discs lubricated with the prepared nanolubricants showed less wear than discs lubricated with BIOE, achieving the highest reduction (34%) in wear track width also for the 1 wt% IL + 0.05 wt% rGO nanolubricant. In addition, through confocal Raman microscopy, as well as roughness analysis of tested discs, it can be concluded that surface repairing, synergistic effect and tribofilm formation mechanisms occur.