Tribological Performance and Surface Analysis of a Borate Calcium as Additive in Lithium and Polyurea Greases

In this work, a borate calcium additive was added to lithium and polyurea greases to investigate the tribological performance. Friction and wear tests were conducted on a four-ball machine under higher load and a reciprocating tribometer under lower load. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analyses were performed on the worn surface after the tests. It was found that the tribological performance affected the boundary layers formed by the additive and the soap fibers. The boundary films in lithium grease mainly consist of ferrum hydroxide, and more oxide can be found in polyurea-based films. SEM analyses of soap fibers show that the soap fibers in polyurea-based grease were more separated than those in lithium-based grease. Compared to the base grease, the soap shows smaller and shorter fibers.