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Effect of Base Oil on Rheological Behaviors and Tribological Properties of Nano-silica Greases

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Abstract

Four samples were prepared by the same synthetic process with paraffinic oil, naphthenic oil, poly-α-olefin oil (PAO), and polyol ester oil (POE), respectively, and using nano-silica as the thickener. For the samples prepared into nano-silica greases (NSGs) successfully, their physiochemical properties, rheological behaviors, low-temperature fluidities, and tribological properties were investigated. Based on the materials and preparation methods selected in this experiment, it has been found that the polyol ester oil could not be prepared into NSGs and the paraffinic oil-based grease had the best colloid stability among the three greases successfully prepared. SEM analysis revealed that NSGs synthesized by different base oils had a similar chain skeleton structure. Moreover, the properties of base oils and their sensitivities to nanoparticles (nano-thickeners) determined the structural strength and thixotropy of the as-prepared NSGs. The low-temperature fluidity test also showed that PAO-based grease has the best pumpability. In addition, the tribological properties of greases were different from the corresponding base oils, which might be caused by the change of the structure after the preparation of greases and the participation of nano-silica in the friction process. This study provided guidance in selecting base oils for the development of high-performance NSGs.

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Data Availability

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article. Any further datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

This work was supported by Innovation Demonstration Project of Henan Province (201111211400), Taishan Scholar Youth Expert Program, and the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XDC04020600).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Engineering Research Center of Nanomaterials, Henan University, Kaifeng, 475004, China

    Huanchen Liu, Xiaohong Li & Shengmao Zhang

  2. State Key Laboratory of Solid Lubrication, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Huanchen Liu, Xiaoyu Wang, Qilong Zhao, Xiaobo Wang & Wenjing Lou

  3. Qingdao Key Laboratory of Lubrication Technology for Advanced Equipment, Qingdao Center of Resource Chemistry & New Materials, Qingdao, 266100, China

    Qilong Zhao, Xiaobo Wang & Wenjing Lou

  4. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Xiaoyu Wang

Authors
  1. Huanchen Liu
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  2. Xiaoyu Wang
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  3. Qilong Zhao
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  4. Xiaohong Li
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  5. Xiaobo Wang
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Contributions

Conceptualization, formal analysis, investigation, and writing—original draft: HL; Investigation: XW and QZ; Funding acquisition: XL; Project administration: XW and SZ; Funding acquisition, supervision, writing—review and editing: WL.

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Correspondence to Shengmao Zhang or Wenjing Lou.

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Liu, H., Wang, X., Zhao, Q. et al. Effect of Base Oil on Rheological Behaviors and Tribological Properties of Nano-silica Greases. J Bio Tribo Corros 9, 24 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40735-023-00742-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40735-023-00742-z

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