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The Effect of Morphology on the Tribological Properties of MoS2 in Liquid Paraffin

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Abstract

The tribological properties of liquid paraffin (LP) containing molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) additives, including nano-balls, nano-slices, and bulk 2H-MoS2, are evaluated using a four-ball tribometer. Results show that all MoS2 additives used can improve the tribological properties of LP, and that nanosized MoS2 particles function as lubrication additives in LP better than micro-MoS2 particles do. The LP with nano-balls presents the best antifriction and antiwear properties at the MoS2 content of 1.5 wt%. This is ascribed to the chemical stability of the layer-closed spherical structure of nano-balls. The Stribeck curves confirm that the rotation speed of 1,450 rpm used is located at the mixed lubrication region under 300 N. MoS2 nano-slices have small sizes and easily enter into the interface of the friction pair with a roughness of 0.032 μm, functioning as a lubricant in LP better than nano-balls do at the MoS2 content of 1.0 wt%. The Stribeck curves also show that the differences between the two nano samples were magnified at high rotation speeds in hydrodynamic lubrication region. The application of nano-slices in high sliding speeds will be more advantageous. This work furthers the understanding of the relationship between the tribological properties and morphology of MoS2.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to express their thanks to Mr. Y. Q. Zhou and Mr. X. Y. Wang for their assistance in the present work. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 50905054), the Anhui Provincial Foundation for Excellent Young Talents in University (Grant No. 2010SQRL160), and the Foundation of State Key Laboratory of Solid Lubrication (Grant No. 0907).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, Hefei University, Hefei, 230022, China

    Kun Hong Hu, Fei Huang & Jun Sheng Liu

  2. Institute of Tribology, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, 230009, China

    Xian Guo Hu & Yu Fu Xu

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  1. Kun Hong Hu
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  2. Xian Guo Hu
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  3. Yu Fu Xu
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Correspondence to Kun Hong Hu.

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Hu, K.H., Hu, X.G., Xu, Y.F. et al. The Effect of Morphology on the Tribological Properties of MoS2 in Liquid Paraffin. Tribol Lett 40, 155–165 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11249-010-9651-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11249-010-9651-z

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