Abstract
By simply switching the electrical circuit installed on steel/steel contact, the tribological behaviors of nanofluids (NFs) can be regulated in real time, thereby achieving the desired performance of friction reduction and wear resistance. Herein, solvent-free carbon spherical nanofluids (C-NFs) were successfully prepared for intelligent lubrication regulation. C-NFs with excellent lubrication performance can immediately reduce the coefficient of friction (COF) despite applying a weak electric potential (1.5 V). Moreover, polyethylene glycol 400 (PEG400) containing 5.0 wt% C-NFs remained responsive to electrical stimulation under the intermittent voltage application with an average coefficient of friction (ACOF) reduction of 20.8% over PEG400. Such intelligent lubrication regulation of C-NFs under an external electric field (EEF) mainly depends on the orderly arranged double-electric adsorption film of ion canopy-adsorbed carbon spheres (CSs). The intermittent electrical application can continuously reinforce the adsorption film and its durability for real-time controlling the sliding interfaces. Electrical-stimulation-responsive intelligent lubricants provide a new technical support for realizing intelligent stepless control of devices.
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Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledged the financial support provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 52075458 and U2141211). Meanwhile, the authors gratefully acknowledged University-Industry Collaborative Education Program, Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 2682021CG008), and Analysis & Testing Center of Southwest Jiaotong University, China, for supporting the SEM measurements.
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Sheng ZHANG. He is currently a senior engineer at Southwest Jiaotong University, China, and a doctoral student in School of Mechanical Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University. His research focuses on fretting friction, lubricating materials, and so on.
Wen LI. She is currently an associate professor at Southwest Jiaotong Unversity, China. She received her Ph.D. degree from Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in 2017. She received her bachelor’s degree in 2011 from Liaocheng University, China. Her research interests cover nano-energy materials, micro-nanodevices, optoelectronic devices, and micro-nanofabrication.
Xiaoliang MA. He received his bachelor–s degree from Shandong University of Science and Technology, China, in 2019. He is currently a graduate student at School of Materials Science and Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, China. His research interests include design of lubricating materials and tribological properties of lubricant additives.
Xiaoqiang FAN. He is currently a professor and Ph.D. student advisor at Southwest Jiaotong University, China. He received his Ph.D. degree from Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in 2016. His research focuses on lubricating materials, corrosion protection, and engineering applications. He has published over 80 papers in international journals, which received more than 1,500 citations.
Minhao ZHU. He received his Ph.D. degree from Southwest Jiaotong University, China. His current positions are a professor, Ph.D. student advisor, Cheung Kong Scholars, and dean of School of Materials Science and Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University. His research areas cover fretting wear, fretting fatigue, surface engineering, and design of fastener connection. He has published over 200 papers in international journals such as Carbon, Tribology International, Surface and Coatings Technology, Tribology Letters, Wear, and Friction, which received more than 2,000 citations.
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Zhang, S., Li, W., Ma, X. et al. Solvent-free carbon sphere nanofluids towards intelligent lubrication regulation. Friction 12, 95–109 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40544-023-0737-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40544-023-0737-7