Tribological properties and lubricating mechanism of SiO2 nanoparticles in water-based fluid

The tribological properties of surface modified SiO2 nanoparticles suspension in water-based lubricant have been studied. SiO2 (30 nm) nanoparticles were dispersed through surface modification with polyethylene glycol-200. Transmission electron microscope (TEM) and infrared (IR) spectroscopy show that SiO2 nanoparticles disperse well and stably in the water-based lubricant. The diameter of the nanoparticles is about 60 nm. Tribological properties of the water-based lubricant were evaluated using four-ball wear test machine and pin-on-disk tester under different loads and different concentrations of SiO2 nanoparticles. Wear surface morphology, element chemistry configuration of steel balls and steel rings were studied by means of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Results show that the tribological properties of the water-based fluid have been improved by addition of nanoparticles ranging from 0.1% to 0.3% concentrations. SiO2 nanoparticles deposited onto the wear surface during the sliding, which helped to reduce the friction coefficients and increase the anti-wear properties due to the miniature ball bearing effect and self-repairing performance of nanoparticles between the friction pairs. With the increase of test load, the friction coefficients decrease but the wear of the surface increase.