Scientist have recently changed one atom thick graphine layer material to make a big difference instead of having oil based lubricants on sliding steel surface to reduce the friction in between those.The wear rate and the coefficient of friction (COF) of steel can be reduced drastically by garaphene, and it is due to the low shear and higly protective character of graphene. oxidatine of steel surface is also prevented by gaphene when present at sliding interface.
Many moving ball bearings, mechanical machines,varing from table fans to giant wind turbines are used graphen for their smoothness to perform reducing energy and materials losses in these moving mechanical systems is due to the friction and wear remains is the one of the greatest engineering challenges of our time.
Molybdenum disulfide or boric acid, which are environmentaly unfriendly additives, are currently used to reduce friction and wear.
though the oil based lubricants are producing additional waste and need to be frquently reapplied. Due to finite thickness, the cost of solid lubricant coating is very high and they do not last long the reduced loss of energy to friction granted by new materials would yield a potential energy savings of 2.46 billion kwhs per year, equivalent to 420,000 barrels of oil.
scientist said that applying or reapplying the graphene coating does not require any additional processing steps other than just sprinkling a small amount of solution on the surface of interest, cost effective, environmentally friendly and making this process simple.
Scientist are interesting to see how a one atom thick material affects the properties at a larger scale andbelieve that graphene has potential as a solid lubricant in the automotive industry and, once fully developed, it could have positive impacts on many mechanical applications that could lead to a tremendous savings of energy.
Source: nature
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