EFFECT OF FUNCTIONALIZED (COOH) MULTI-WALLED CARBON NANO-TUBES (MWCNTS) ON ANTI-WEAR PERFORMANCE OF AN ENGINE OIL

Abstract

Dissimilar materials with various nano forms were used as additives for improving properties of lubricants in the recent times. The potential of using functionalized (COOH) Multi-Walled Carbon Nano-tubes (MWCNTs) as additives in mineral oil grade SAE 20W40 was investigated in this study. High specific surface area of MWCNT might cause agglomeration and hence TRITON X-100 as surfactant was added to maintain MWCNT in the deagglomeration state. However, the addition of Triton X-100 as surfactant in the mineral oil resulted in the variations of its tribological characteristics. The efficiency of MWCNT as anti-wear additive is also dependent on the properties of base oil. The weight percentage of MWCNT considered for preparing the nano-lubricant was taken to be 0.01%, 0.05%, 0.1%, and 0.2% of the lubricant weight. The surfactant Triton X-100 quantity using sonicator is taken to be 350 times the quantity of MWCNT by weight .The surface morphology of the samples was observed using Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM). The experiments have been conducted to explore the optimum amount of MWCNT which can minimize the wear. The SAE 20 W40 lubricants containing different quantities of MWCNT were prepared with base oil using the Triton X-100 as surfactant to investigate its inference. The wear rate and frictional force was measured using pin on disk tester and anti-wear performance of the nano lubricants were studied. The results indicate that the quantity of MWCNT for base oil that was able to reduce the wear was found to be 0.05% by weight.