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Understanding the tribological impacts of alkali element on lubrication of binary borate melt

Melt lubricants have been regarded as an effective class to deliver lubrication on moving mechanical contacts at extreme temperatures. Among the elementary constituents, alkali elements play a critical role in governing the physical–chemical characteristics of the lubricant despite the obscurity reg...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Tran, Bach H., Tieu, Kiet, Wan, Shanhong, Zhu, Hongtao, Cui, Shaogang, Wang, Liping
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Royal Society of Chemistry 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9084397/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35548021
http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/c8ra04658a
Descripción
Sumario:Melt lubricants have been regarded as an effective class to deliver lubrication on moving mechanical contacts at extreme temperatures. Among the elementary constituents, alkali elements play a critical role in governing the physical–chemical characteristics of the lubricant despite the obscurity regarding their intrinsic roles on the rubbing interfaces. The present study attempts to unfold the effects of sodium on the tribological responses of mating steel pair under borate melt lubrication. It has been found that the involvement of Na inspires a total reversal in lubricating potentials of the lone B(2)O(3) melt manifested by remarkable friction reduction, wear inhibition and prolonged load-bearing capacity. These exceptional performances are attributed to the accretion of nanothin Na layers on the contact interfaces. The interfacial occurrences are interpreted from a physico-chemistry perspective while the influences of surface microstructure are also discussed in detail. Multiple characterizations are employed to thoroughly examine the sliding interfaces in multi-dimensions including Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy (STEM) and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). In addition, chemical fingerprints of relevant elements are determined by Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) and Electron Loss Energy Spectroscopy (EELS).