Abstract
Inorganic nanomaterials exhibit superior friction-reduction and anti-wear properties in oils. In this study, 2D layered α-zirconium phosphate (α-ZrP) nanosheets intercalated with different amines have been synthesized to study their dispersion stabilities in lubricating oil and tribological applications. The intercalated amines should be sufficiently long and lipophilic to provide stabilization to α-ZrP nanosheets in mineral oil. The results of tribological tests illustrate that with the addition of well-dispersed nanosheets, the coefficient of friction (COF) and pin volume loss reduce by ~47% and 75%, respectively. The excellent dispersion stability enables the nanosheets to flow into the contact area at the beginning, and thereby protect the rubbing surface. A reduction in the van der Waals forces between the adjacent layers induced by the intercalated amines transforms the friction between adjacent layers from pin disk to sliding, leading to a decrease in the COF under hydrodynamic lubrication. The study provides a new method to enhance the tribological properties via tuning the dispersion stabilities of nanomaterials in oils.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Holmberg K, Andersson P, Erdemir A. Global energy consumption due to friction in passenger cars. Tribol Int47: 221–234 (2012)
Cai M R, Guo R S, Zhou F, Liu W M. Lubricating a bright future: Lubrication contribution to energy saving and low carbon emission. Sci China Technol Sci56(12): 2888–2913 (2013)
Byerlee J. Friction of rocks. Pure Appl Geophys116(4–5): 615–626 (1978)
He X L, Xiao X P, Choi H, Diaz A, Mosby B, Clearfield A, Liang H. α-Zirconium phosphate nanoplatelets as lubricant additives. Colloids Surf A Physicochem Eng Aspects452: 32–38 (2014)
Tang Z L, Li S H. A review of recent developments of friction modifiers for liquid lubricants (2007-present). Curr Opin Solid State Mater Sci18(3): 119–139 (2014)
Makiharju S A, Perlin M, Ceccio S L. On the energy economics of air lubrication drag reduction. Int J Nav Arch Ocean Eng4(4): 412–422 (2012)
Boerzel P, Bronstert K, Hovemann F. Oil additives, maleic anhydride product. U.S. Patent 4 152 499, May, 1979.
Qu J, Truhan J J, Dai S, Luo H, Blau P J. Ionic liquids with ammonium cations as lubricants or additives. Tribol Lett22(3): 207–214 (2006)
Bermudez M D, Jimenez A E, Sanes J, Carrion F J. Ionic liquids as advanced lubricant fluids. Molecules14(8): 2888–2908 (2009)
Wu Y Y, Tsui W C, Liu T C. Experimental analysis of tribological properties of lubricating oils with nanoparticle additives. Wear262(7–8): 819–825 (2007)
Spikes H. Low- and zero-sulphated ash, phosphorus and sulphur anti-wear additives for engine oils. Lubricat Sci20(2): 103–136 (2008)
Xu Y, Hu E Z, Hu K H, Xu Y F, Hu X G. Formation of an adsorption film of MoS2 nanoparticles and dioctyl sebacate on a steel surface for alleviating friction and wear. Tribol Int92: 172–183 (2015)
Yadgarov L, Petrone V, Rosentsveig R, Feldman Y, Tenne R, Senatore A. Tribological studies of rhenium doped fullerene-like MoS2 nanoparticles in boundary, mixed and elasto-hydrodynamic lubrication conditions. Wear297(1–2): 1103–1110 (2013)
Bhushan B, Israelachvili J N, Landman U. Nanotribology: Friction, wear and lubrication at the atomic scale. Nature374(6523): 607–616 (1995)
Chen Y F, Zhang Y J, Zhang S M, Yu L G, Zhang P Y, Zhang Z J. Preparation of nickel-based nanolubricants via a facile in situ one-step route and investigation of their tribological properties. Tribol Lett51(1): 73–83 (2013)
Liu G, Li X, Qin B, Xing D, Guo Y, Fan R. Investigation of the mending effect and mechanism of copper Nano-particles on a tribologically stressed surface. Tribol Lett17(4): 961–966 (2004)
Popa I, Gillies G, Papastavrou G, Borkovec M. Attractive and repulsive electrostatic forces between positively charged latex particles in the presence of anionic linear polyelectrolytes. J Phys Chem B114(9): 3170–3177 (2010)
Yu W, Xie H Q. A review on nanofluids: Preparation, stability mechanisms, and applications. J Nanomater2012: 435873 (2012)
Song H J, Wang B, Zhou Q, Xiao J X, Jia X H. Preparation and tribological properties of MoS2/graphene oxide composites. Appl Surf Sci419: 24–34 (2017)
Lee C G, Hwang Y J, Choi Y M, Lee J K, Choi C, Oh J M. A study on the tribological characteristics of graphite nano lubricants. Int J Precis Eng Manuf10(1): 85–90 (2009)
Clearfield A, Stynes J A. The preparation of crystalline zirconium phosphate and some observations on its ion exchange behaviour. J Inorg Nucl Chem26(1): 117–129 (1964)
Díaz A, Saxena V, González J, David A, Casañas B, Carpenter C, Batteas J D, Colón J L, Clearfield A, Hussain M D. Zirconium phosphate nano-platelets: A novel platform for drug delivery in cancer therapy. Chem Commun48(12): 1754–1756 (2012)
Saxena V, Diaz A, Clearfield A, Batteas J D, Hussain M D. Zirconium phosphate nanoplatelets: A biocompatible nanomaterial for drug delivery to cancer. Nanoscale5(6): 2328–2336 (2013)
Sun L Y, Boo W J, Sun D Z, Clearfield A, Sue H J. Preparation of exfoliated epoxy/α-zirconium phosphate nanocomposites containing high aspect ratio nanoplatelets. Chem Mater19(7): 1749–1754 (2007)
Zhang H, Chen L, Han X, Jiang F, Sun H Y, Sun D Z. Enhanced mechanical properties of Nylon6 nanocomposites containing pristine α-zirconium phosphate nanoplatelets of various sizes by melt-compounding. RSC Adv7(52): 32682–32691 (2017)
Chen L, Sun D Z, Li J, Zhu G D. Exfoliation of layered zirconium phosphate nanoplatelets by melt compounding. Mater Des122: 247–254 (2017)
Li D D, Xie Y C, Yong H S, Sun D Z. Surfactant-assisted preparation of Y2O3-stabilized ZrO2 nanoparticles and their tribological performance in mineral and commercial lubricating oils. RSC Adv7(7): 3727–3735 (2017)
Ma H J, Zhang X S, Xu H. Tribological properties of layered A-zirconium phosphate as lithium grease additive. Asian J Chem27(3): 1133–1137 (2015)
Tindwa R M, Ellis D K, Peng G Z, Clearfield A. Intercalation of n-alkylamines by α-zirconium phosphate. J Chem Soc Faraday Trans81(2): 545–552 (1985)
Alberti G. Syntheses, crystalline structure, and ion-exchange properties of insoluble acid salts of tetravalent metals and their salt forms. Acc Chem Res11(4): 163–170 (1978)
Zhang X S, Xu H, Zuo Z J, Lin Z, Ferdov S, Dong J X. Hydrothermal synthesis of copper zirconium phosphate hydrate [Cu(OH)2Zr(HPO4)2·2H2O] and an investigation of its lubrication properties in grease. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces5(16): 7989–7994 (2013)
Sun L Y, Boo W J, Sue H J, Clearfield A. Preparation of α-zirconium phosphate nanoplatelets with wide variations in aspect ratios. New J Chem31(1): 39–43 (2007)
Alberti G, Costantino U. Recent progress in the intercalation chemistry of layered α-zirconium phosphate and its derivatives, and future perspectives for their use in catalysis. J Mol Catal27(1–2): 235–250 (1984)
ASTM. ASTM Standard G 99 Standard test method for wear testing with a pin-on-disk apparatus. West Conshohocken (USA): ASTM, 2005.
Cao Z, Sun L X, Cao X Q, He Y H. Synthesis and characterization of the layered zirconium phosphate and its intercalation study. Adv Mater Res233–235: 1809–1813 (2011)
Kim H N, Keller S W, Mallouk T E. Characterization of zirconium phosphate/polycation thin films grown by sequential adsorption reactions. Chem Mater9(6): 1414–1421 (1997)
Saunders A E, Ghezelbash A, Smilgies D M, Sigman M B, Korgel B A. Columnar self-assembly of colloidal nanodisks. Nano Lett6(12): 2959–2963 (2006)
Wen S Z, Huang P. Principles of Tribology. Singapore: John Wiley & Sons Inc., 2012: 647–648.
Hou K M, Gong P W, Wang J Q, Yang Z G, Wang Z F, Yang S R. Structural and tribological characterization of fluorinated graphene with various fluorine contents prepared by liquidphase exfoliation. RSC Adv4(100): 56543–56551 (2014)
Tao X, Zhao J Z, Xu K. The ball-bearing effect of diamond nanoparticles as an oil additive. J Phys D-Appl Phys29(11): 2932–2937 (1996)
Fusaro R L, Sliney H E. Graphite fluoride (CFx)n-A new solid lubricant. A S L E Trans13(1): 56–65 (1970)
Hills B A. Graphite-like lubrication of mesothelium by oligolamellar pleural surfactant. J Appl Physiol73(3): 1034–1039 (1992)
Han X, Yong H S, Sun D Z. Tuning tribological performance of layered zirconium phosphate nanoplatelets in oil by surface and interlayer modifications. Nanoscale Res Lett12: 542 (2017)
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the start-up funding from the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), gThe Recruitment Program of Global Youth Experts of Chinah, and the Foundation of Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Committee (Grant Nos. JCYJ20160315164631204 and KQJSCX20170726145415637). Authors are also thankful to Mrs. Sixia Hu for the XRD training.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Haoyang SUN. He received his bachelor degree in materials science and engineering from Harbin Institute of Technology University, Harbin, China. Then he obtained his master degree in materials science and engineering from Joint Harbin Institute of Technology-Southern University of Science and Technology program, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. His research interests mainly focus on the synthesis of 2D materials, the physical modification of polymers, and the structure-property relationship of polymeric composites.
Lei CHEN. He received his bachelor degree in metallurgical engineering from Central South University, Changsha, China, his master degree in mechanical design and theory from Xiangtan University, Xiangtan, China, and his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Central South University, Changsha, China, respectively. After his post-doc research at Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China, he joined Dongguan University of Technology, Dongguan, China, as a lecturer. His research interests include polymer nanocomposites and micro injection molding technology.
Fan LEI. She received her bachelor degree in material processing and control engineering from Changsha University of Science and Technology, Changsha, China, and Ph.D. degree in materials science from Sichuan University, Chengdu, China. She is currently a postdoctor in Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China. Her research interests mainly focus on the structure-property relationship of polymer nanocomposites.
Dazhi SUN. He received his bachelor and master degrees in chemical engineering from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, and his Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from Texas A&M University, USA. After his post-doc research at Brookhaven National Lab, he joined Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China, as an associate professor. His research interests include polymers, nanomaterials, nanolubricating materials, and their industrial applications.
Rights and permissions
Open Access: This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.
The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.
To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
About this article
Cite this article
Jiang, F., Sun, H., Chen, L. et al. Dispersion-tribological property relationship in mineral oils containing 2D layered α-zirconium phosphate nanoplatelets. Friction 8, 695–707 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40544-019-0294-2
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40544-019-0294-2