Researchers from the Argonne National Laboratory have discovered that graphene is an excellent steel lubricants. In fact it turns out that graphene dramatically reduces the amount of wear and friction in sliding steel surfaces, because of graphene's low shear and highly protective nature. The graphene lubricants also prevented oxidation of the steel surfaces when present at sliding contact interfaces.
Current lubricants are made from environmentally unfriendly additives or solid lubricants (such as molybdenum disulfide or boric acid). Both Oil-based and solid lubricants wear in time and need to be consistently reapplied. Graphene on the other time, can last a considerable length of time due to the flakes’ ability to reorient themselves during initial wear cycles. Graphene, made entirely out of carbon is environmentally friendly.
