Abstract
The carbon nano-onion can be considered as a new kind of interesting lubricating nanoparticle. Used as lubricant additives, carbon nano-onions lead to a strong reduction of both friction and wear, even at low temperature. To better elucidate the mechanisms by which these processes occur, coupled experimental and computational investigations are carried out. In addition, it is found that lubricious iron oxide nanoparticles are generated in the core of the steel contact through mechanisms that are not yet known. The molecular dynamics simulations of carbon onions placed between sliding diamond-like carbon surfaces at high contact pressure indicate that the lubrication mechanism of the onions is based on a coupled process of rolling and sliding inside the contact area. We conclude that most of carbon onions seem to remain intact under friction processes and do not generate graphitic planes, which is in contrast to the previously determined behavior of MoS2 fullerenes that are mainly exfoliated inside the contact area and liberate lubricating lamellar sheets of h-MoS2.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bushan, B., Gupta, B.K.: Handbook of Tribology: Materials Coatings and Surface Treatments. McGraw-Hill, New York (1991)
Grossiord, C., Varlot, K., Martin, J.M., Le Mogne, T., Esnouf, C., Inoue, K.: MoS2 single sheet lubrication by molybdenum dithiocarbamate. Tribol. Int. 31, 737–743 (1998)
Tenne, R.: Inorganic nanotubes and fullerene-like nanoparticles. Nat. Nanotechnol. 1, 103–111 (2006)
Joly-Pottuz, L., Dassenoy, F., Belin, M., Vacher, B., Martin, J.M., Fleischer, N.: Ultralow-friction and wear properties of IF-WS2 under boundary lubrication. Tribol. Lett. 18, 477–485 (2005)
Joly-Pottuz, L., Martin, J.M., Dassenoy, F., Belin, M., Montagnac, G., Reynard, B., Fleischer, N.: Pressure-induced exfoliation of inorganic fullerene-like WS2 particles in a Hertzian contact. J. Appl. Phys. 99, 023524 (2006)
Joly-Pottuz, L., Martin, J.M., Belin, M., Dassenoy, F., Montagnac, G., Reynard, B.: Study of inorganic fullerenes and carbon nanotubes by in situ Raman tribometry. Appl. Phys. Lett. 91, 153107 (2007)
Rapoport, L., Bilik, Y., Feldman, Y., Homyonfer, M., Cohen, S.R., Tenne, R.: Hollow nanoparticles of WS2 as potential solid-state lubricants. Nature 387, 791 (1997)
Joly-Pottuz, L., Dassenoy, F., Vacher, B., Martin, J.M., Mieno, T.: Ultralow friction and wear behaviour of Ni/Y-based single wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs). Tribol. Int. 37, 1013–1018 (2004)
Joly-Pottuz, L., Matsumoto, N., Kinoshita, H., Vacher, B., Belin, M., Montagnac, G., Martin, J.M., Ohmae, N.: Diamond-derived carbon onions as lubricant additives. Tribol. Int. 41, 69–78 (2008)
Joly-Pottuz, L., Vacher, B., Ohmae, N., Martin, J.M., Epicier, T.: Anti-wear and friction reducing mechanisms of carbon nano-onions as lubricant additives. Tribol. Lett. 30, 69–80 (2008)
Yuansheng, J., Shenghua, L.: Superlubricity of in situ generated protective layer on worn metal surfaces in presence of Mg6Si4O10(OH)8. In: Erdemir, A., Martin, J.M. (eds.) Superlubricity, p. 445. Elsevier, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2007)
Buldum, A., Lu, J.P.: Atomic scale sliding and rolling of carbon nanotubes. Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 5050–5053 (1999)
Falvo, M.R., Steele, J., Taylor II, R.M., Superfine, R.: Gearlike rolling motion mediated by commensurate contact: Carbon nanotube on HOPG. Phys. Rev B 62, R10665–R10667 (2000)
Miura, K., Sasaki, N.: Superlubricity of fullerene intercalated graphite composite. In: Erdemir, A., Martin, J.M. (eds.) Superlubricity, p. 161. Elsevier, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2007)
Ni, B., Sinnott, S.B.: Tribological properties of carbon nanotubes bundles predicted from atomistic simulations. Surf. Sci. 487, 87–96 (2001)
Joly-Pottuz, L.: Ph.D. Thesis (number 2005-24), Ecole Centrale de Lyon (2005)
Heo, S., Sinnott, S.B.: Effect of molecular interactions on carbon nanotube friction. J. Appl. Phys. 102, 064307 (2007)
Kinoshita, H., Kume, I., Tagawa, M., Ohmae, N.: High friction of a vertically aligned carbon-nanotube film in microtribology. Appl. Phys. Lett. 85, 2780 (2004)
Brenner, D.W., Shenderova, O.A., Harrison, J.A., Stuart, S.J., Ni, B., Sinnott, S.B.: A second-generation reactive empirical bond order (REBO) potential energy expression for hydrocarbons”. J. Phys.-Condes. Matter 14, 783–802 (2002)
Lennard-Jones, J.E.: Cohesion. Proc. Phys. Soc. 43, 461–482 (1931)
Olla, M., Navarra, G., Elsener, B., Rossi, A.: Non destructive in-depth composition profile of oxy-hydroxide nanolayers on iron surfaces from ARXPS measurement. Surf. Interface Anal. 38, 964 (2006)
Matsumoto, N.: Tribology of advanced carbon materials with focuses on onion-like carbon. Ph.D. Thesis, Kobe University (2009)
Matsumoto, N., Joly-Pottuz, L., Kinoshita, H., Ohmae, N.: Application of onion-like carbon to micro and macrotribology. Diam. Relat. Mater. 16, 1227–1230 (2007)
Tomita, S., Sakurai, T., Ohta, H., Fujii, M., Hayashi, S.: Structure and electronic properties of carbon onions. J. Chem. Phys. 114, 7477–7482 (2001)
Weast, R.C. (ed.): CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 49th edn. D-38-D-49. Cooperative Research Centre for Soil and Land Management (CRC), Boca Raton, FL (1968)
Srolovitz, D.J., Safran, S.A., Homyonfer, M., Tenne, R.: Phys. Rev. Lett. 1995, 1779 (1995)
Bhushan, B., Gupta, B.K., Cleef, G.W.V., Capp, C., Coe, J.V.: Fullerene (C60) films for solid lubrication. Tribol. Trans. 36(4), 573–580 (1993)
Acknowledgments
E.W.B. and S.B.S. acknowledge the support of the National Science Foundation (grant number CMMI-0742580). S.R.P. acknowledges the support of an AFOSR MURI. L.J.P. would like to thank the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) for its financial support in a part of this study.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Joly-Pottuz, L., Bucholz, E.W., Matsumoto, N. et al. Friction Properties of Carbon Nano-Onions from Experiment and Computer Simulations. Tribol Lett 37, 75–81 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11249-009-9492-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11249-009-9492-9