RESEARCH ON IMPROVEMENT OF LUBRICANT PERFORMANCE BY GRAPHENE NANOPLATELETS

Abstract

The use of nano-additives is widely recognized as a cheap and effective pathway to improve the performance of lubrication by minimizing the energy loss from friction and wear, especially in diesel engines. This work has demonstrated the lubrication performance improvement by graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs). The GNPs additive were characterized using scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction. The prepared GNPs had wrinkled and crumpled structures with a diameter of 10-30µm and a thickness of less than 15nm. The highest reduction of 35% was determined for the wear scar diameter with a GNP additive concentration of approximately 0.05%.