Influence of boric acid additive size on green lubricant performance

Abstract

As the industrial community moves towards green manufacturing processes, there is an increased demand for multi-functional, environmentally friendly lubricants with enhanced tribological performance. In the present investigation, green (environmentally benign) lubricant combinations were prepared by homogeneously mixing nano- (20 nm), sub-micrometre- (600 nm average size) and micrometre-scale (4 μm average size) boric acid powder additives with canola oil in a vortex generator. As a basis for comparison, lubricants of base canola oil and canola oil mixed with MoS₂ powder (ranging from 0.5 to 10 μm) were also prepared. Friction and wear experiments were carried out on the prepared lubricants using a pin-on-disc apparatus under ambient conditions. Based on the experiments, the nanoscale (20 nm) particle boric acid additive lubricants significantly outperformed all of the other lubricants with respect to frictional and wear performance. In fact, the nanoscale boric acid powder-based lubricants exhibited a wear rate more than an order of magnitude lower than the MoS₂ and larger sized boric acid additive-based lubricants. It was also discovered that the oil mixed with a combination of sub-micrometre- and micrometre-scale boric acid powder additives exhibited better friction and wear performance than the canola oil mixed with sub-micrometre- or micrometre-scale boric acid additives alone.