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Voltage-Assisted Tribofilm Formation of Sulfur- and Phosphorus-Free Organic Molybdenum Additive on Bearing Steel Surfaces in Industrial Base Oils

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A Correction to this article was published on 12 September 2023

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Abstract

In this work, a series of experiments on tribofilm formation of sulfur- and phosphorus-free organic molybdenum additive (SPFM) on bearing steel surfaces have been performed in a ZrO2 ball-on-steel plate tester lubricated by gas-to-liquid (GTL), di-2-ethylhexylsebacate (Ester), or polyalphaolefin (PAO) synthetic oils under different temperature and external voltage conditions. The synergy effect of SPFM with 2,5-dimercapto-1,3,4-thiadiazole derivative (DMTD) and zinc dithiophosphate (ZDDP) additives has also been investigated. The results reveal that SPFM additive plays a major role in reduction of friction and wear by formation of MoOx tribofilm on steel surface lubricated with either GTL or PAO oil samples, which can be enhanced by an externally applied voltage. S element provided by DMTD additive can react with Mo element in SPFM to form MoS2, which also contributes friction reduction. Comparing with GTL and PAO base oils, the Ester oil is less effective in the tribofilm formation because of its low solubility for the additives. Higher temperatures (at 60 °C, 100 °C or 140 °C) and an initial running-in are beneficial to the tribofilm formation. A three-step mechanism, hydrolysis of SPFM, adsorption of the MoO42− anions, and tribochemical reactions at the rubbing surface, is proposed to explain the observed voltage-assisted tribofilm formation results.

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Acknowledgements

This work has been financially supported by Tsinghua (SVM)—Shell Joint Research Center for Clean Mobility under the Work Order No. CW 299060, National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51961145303, Grant No. 5191101008, Grant No. 5210050195.), and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant No. 2021TQ0175). Authors thank Professor Chenhui Zhang of Tsinghua University for providing the SPFM additive and Jiping Zhang from Tianjin Research Institute for Advanced Equipment, Tsinghua University, for the composition analysis of additives.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Tribology, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Chenxu Liu, Chuke Ouyang, Yu Tian & Yonggang Meng

  2. Shell (Shanghai) Technology Limited, Shanghai, 201210, China

    Weizi Li

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  1. Chenxu Liu
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  2. Weizi Li
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  3. Chuke Ouyang
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Correspondence to Yonggang Meng.

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Liu, C., Li, W., Ouyang, C. et al. Voltage-Assisted Tribofilm Formation of Sulfur- and Phosphorus-Free Organic Molybdenum Additive on Bearing Steel Surfaces in Industrial Base Oils. Tribol Lett 70, 19 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11249-022-01562-x

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