Lubricants - Page 2

Sweden-based Applied Nano Surfaces (ANS) launched a new product, Tricolit GO, one of the first graphene-enhanced low-friction coatings on the market today. Tricolit is available now from ANS, in easy-to-apply spray cans or in bulk. The product can be used to reduce friction and wear. ANS claims that the use of graphene allows a tenfold increase in the coating’s mechanical strength and abrasion-resistance.


We have talked to ANS CTO, Boris Zhmud, and he revealed that ANS uses graphene dispersions from UK-based Applied Graphene Materials. Tricolit GO is still considered an "experimental" product. The development was financed by Sweden's SIO-Grafen.

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory have been working replace oil with solid lubricants such as graphene. Argonne’s Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program supplied the seed money needed to begin experimentation towards that end. This work may have far reaching implications both inside and outside the automobile industry. It could help wind turbines move with greater ease, allowing them to produce more energy. It also can better seal off machinery as it pumps oil or gas from the ground or out at sea.

The graphene-encapsulated diamond ball bearings translate the nanoscale superlubricity into a macroscale phenomenon

Graphene can also be used to better protect ball bearings, which can corrode over time when exposed to water, a process commonly referred to as tribo-corrosion. The Argonne-developed process based on graphene has shown that a few layers of graphene not only reduced friction in steel rubbing against steel by seven times and the wear by 10,000 times but also significantly reduced the tribo-corrosion problem.

A new initiative called "The Technical Standards Development and Application Demonstration Base of Graphene-Modified Lubricants" was launched at LiuGong’s Global R&D Center in Liuzhou, China. Co-built by the China Innovation Alliance of the Graphene Industry and Guangxi Liugong Machinery (a leading China-based construction equipment manufacturer), it aims to become a major base in China that concentrates on the transformation of graphene’s scientific research into real world applications.

The partnership also includes building a joint laboratory and undertaking independent test tasks from other companies in the future. The initiative will push the R&D and innovation of graphene-modified lubricant products at LiuGong and will also give the firm a chance to participate in drafting industry standards directly.

Researchers at Sunway University in Malaysia have developed and produced graphene-based lubricants to improve automotive and industrial lubricants. They aim to commercialize their graphene-based nanolubricant 'Infinoil' within the year, which can reduce friction and wear, improving engine efficiency in automotive and industrial applications.

"Wear of engines and machinery continues to be a global concern costing billions annually. Traditional lubricants which use chemical additives have reached the threshold limit in-terms of efficiency. To meet the modern engineering lubrication challenges which primarily deal with nanoscale-friction and thermal performance, we took up nanomaterials to find a solution. Having successfully exploited metallic, metal oxides, graphene and other 2-dimensional materials for heat transfer applications since 2007, our current focus is on heat transfer fluids which also include nanolubricants," said the researchers.

The Wuxi Graphene Industry Development & Demonstration Zone (in Wuxi, China - near Shanghai) is an impressive graphene center (we visited Wuxi in 2017). The center recently renovated its demonstration room, and sent us this video showcasing the many graphene products and materials under development or in production at the center.

There are a few new graphene projects underway at Wuxi. One example is a graphene additive to engine lubrication oils, used in the Xichuang G6 graphene oil, which is able to reduce gasoline consumption by 5-15% compared to current oils.

Researchers at Purdue University have created a new type of graphene-enhanced non-liquid lubricant which reduces friction and wear. The suggested applications include air compressors for missile systems and more. The new liquid-free composite is made from a slurry of graphene, zinc oxide, and the polymer polyvinylidene difluoride.

The nanosize zinc-oxide particles allow the lubricant to stick to the metal surface, and the polymer binds the whole mixture together, said the team, which also explained that solid lubricants are needed for numerous applications such as air compressors, equipment used in the food industry, space vehicles, gear-and-chain mechanisms, fasteners found in high-temperature environments, and missile systems.

Applied Graphene Materials, in a recent update, said it made "significant progress" in all of its core markets of composites, coatings, oils and lubricants. Among the reported highlights of its work is its graphene-enhanced epoxy prepreg system MTC9800 to be shown at the JEC World exhibition later this month, after a year and half collaboration with SHD Composites.

In addition, the company has recently completed the first phase of a development project investigating the application of its graphene for resin infused Aerospace structures. During 2016 it continued work on its development program with Airbus Defence and Space, a division of Airbus Group SE, although details of this work are still subject to a non-disclosure agreement.

Nippon Shokubai, a Japan-based global materials provider, has announced its success in mass production tests of graphene oxide-based materials. The production volume attained in the mass production test was reportedly improved dozens of times as much as that attained at laboratory, and Nippon Shokubai will start to provide graphene oxide-based materials as samples for application development.

The graphene oxide-based materials are lamellar carbon compounds with the approximately 1nm thickness and the company expects them to be suitable for various functional materials, such as lubricants, water treatment membranes, and catalysts. Nippon Shokubai stated that it has resolved various problems relating to chemical reactions of the production process and succeeded in the mass production test by utilizing its control technology for stable proceeding of chemical reactions in collaboration with Okayama University which retained academic knowledge about reaction mechanism of graphene oxide.

Haydale has announced a collaboration agreement with Graphit Kropfmuhl GmbH, part of AMG Advanced Metallurgical Group and an affiliate of Alterna Capital Partners. The Agreement focuses on the development of new value added nano-material products using Haydale's HDPlas functionalization process and certain AMG graphitic feedstock material primarily from its GK mine in Sri Lanka.

Haydale will initially supply an R&D reactor (HT60) and a larger capacity reactor (HT200) to GK for use under the Agreement. The initial contract value for the supply of the reactors is payable to Haydale on the normal machine supply basis. Subject to reaching the agreed milestones, the majority of the revenue is scheduled to be received in the current financial year and is expected to constitute a significant proportion of the Group’s revenues for the year ended 30 June 2016.

Researchers at Northwestern University targeted the problem of fuel waste in automobiles due to friction, and tested crumpled graphene balls as a lubricant additive. In a series of tests, oil modified with crumpled graphene balls outperformed some commercial lubricants by 15%, both in terms of reducing friction and the degree of wear on steel surfaces.

Crumpled graphene balls are a novel type of ultrafine particles that resemble crumpled paper balls. The particles are made by drying tiny water droplets with graphene-based sheets inside. The scientists explain that capillary force generated by the evaporation of water crumples the sheets into miniaturized paper balls, just like how we might crumple a piece of paper with our hands.