Scientists make better lubricants for steel machines

Lubricants are used in the industry to minimize friction, and wear and tear in the machinery. Indian scientists have made a new lubricant that shows a record low value of friction in sliding steel-steel interfaces.

The lubricant is made using polyethylene glycol 600. It is intercalated between layers of reduced graphene oxide sheets. These sheets have special chemical properties. They are attached to epoxy-hyroxyl chemical groups. The resulting product has a high lubrication capacity. When tested for its ability to reduce friction between layers of sliding steel, the lubricant showed record low values of friction. It reduces friction by increasing the chemical stability and mechanical strength of reduced graphene oxide sheet.

Researchers at the IndiraGandhi Centre for Atomic Research in Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu, prepared this new lubricant. They collaborated with researchers from the Swiss Institute forDryland Environmental and Energy Research, Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, and the University of Tokyo in Japan.

The new lubricant made using graphene sheets (green) and polyethylene glycol (orange) reduces the friction between steel surfaces.

“This study will certainly help to synthesise effective lubricant additives. We have shown a record low value of friction in graphene oxide blended lubricant sliding against steel-steel interfaces”, says Professor Niranjan Kumar at the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research in Kalpakkam.

Scientists suggest another possible use of this new lubricant. The additive polyethylene glycol is already widely used in biomedical applications for reducing the friction and wear of knee joints. They say that the new lubricant can be a better material for this purpose.  However, this needs to be thoroughly investigated for safety.

 “This lubricant is easy to prepare and is a potential material for energy-efficient tribological applications in machine element”, say scientists Bhavana Gupta, Niranjan Kumar, Kalpataru Panda, Vigneshwaran Kanan, Shailesh Joshi, and Iris Visoly-Fisher. The findings are published in a recent issue of the journal Scientific Reports. 

Published- India Science Wire. 

Reference: Scientific Reports 7: 45030.