Tribological Performance of Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes in Mineral Oils under Boundary Lubricated Sliding

The tribological performance of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNT) in mineral oils is investigated at ambient temperature. The frictional forces, wear amounts and cycles to scuffing of the oils with nanotubes and without those were measured using the ball-on-disk tester. It was found that there were little differences in the frictional forces and wear amounts of two oils. However, the scuffing times of oils with nanotubes were much longer than those of oils without nanotubes in sliding tests. The nanotubes were very effective on maintaining the oil gap and protecting the surfaces in boundary lubricated sliding.