The Effect of Particulate Additives on the Tribological Performance of Bio-Based and Ionic Liquid-Based Lubricants for Energy Conservation and Sustainability
Recently, the use of green lubricants has grown in the lubrication industry due to environmental concerns and increasingly more stringent government regulations to curb the use of petroleum-based lubricants. The present investigation seeks to determine alternatives to the toxic petroleum-based lubricants by developing green lubricants. In this study, efforts were made to examine the influence of multiple additives (such as hexagonal boron nitride, tungsten disulfide, molybdenum disulfide, graphite and carbon nanotubes) of various shapes and sizes in lubricant mixtures for their tribological performance. Here, a natural oil and an ecofriendly ionic liquid (IL) were used as base oils for the lubricant mixtures. In the natural oil mixtures, improved tribological performance was dependent on the particle type followed by the particle size. On the contrary, the tribological performance of the IL-based mixtures was dependent on particle size and independent of the particle type.