DEVELOPMENT OF VEGETABLE OIL-BASED NANO-LUBRICANTS USING AG, H-BN AND MGO NANOPARTICLES AS LUBRICANT ADDITIVES

Kollol Sarker Jogesh, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

Copyright 2023 The Author. All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

Because of the harmful impact of petroleum-based lubricant on the environment and human body, vegetable oil-based lubricant with eco-friendly nanoparticles has a great potential to be an alternative lubricant if it possesses proper lubricating properties. In this study, thermal conductivity, viscosity and tribological properties (wear scar diameter and coefficient of friction) of vegetable oil-based nanolubricant, developed from soybean oil and sunflower oil, modified with Ag, h-BN and MgO nanoparticles as lubricant additives, were evaluated. For thermal conductivity evaluation, a line heat source method was used with KD2 Pro-Thermal Property Analyzer. For viscosity evaluation, Haake Mars 40-rheometer was used to evaluate viscosity as a function of share rate and temperature. And for tribological properties evaluation, a fourball tester, named FBT-3 was used to obtain coefficient of friction and a digital image acquisition system, IAS-3 was used to measure wear scar diameter. It is observed that for all the samples, thermal conductivity increased as a function of nanoparticle concentration with increased temperature. The viscosity of all the sample showed a consistent result as a function of nanoparticle concentration and dropped significantly in response to increased temperature. Also, it has been observed that coefficient of friction and wear scar diameter lowered down to a certain nanoparticle concentration and then raised again as a result of increased nanoparticle concentration. These newly developed nanofluids can be promising alternatives to conventional petroleum-based lubricant.