Dr. Chaoming Wang, Associate Professor, School of Mechanics and Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, China

Title: Synthesis and Tribological Properties of Field’s alloy Nanoparticles as Additives in Liquid Poly-alfa-olefin Solution

Abstract: This paper describes a facile one-step method for synthesizing surface modified Field's alloy nanoparticles using ethyl carbamate as surfactant by using nanoemulsification technique. The size, morphologies and composition of as-prepared Field’s alloy nanoparticles were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF), respectively. The zeta potential, viscosity and stability properties of the surface modified Field alloy nanoparticles dispersed in Poly-alfa-olefin (PAO) oil (called nanofluid) with different mass concentration (0.02%, 0.04%, 0.06%, 0.08% and 0.1%) were measured by a viscometer and Zeta potential analyser, respectively. The thermal stability and durability of Field’s alloy nanoparticles and nanofluid were evaluated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The experimental results showed that the as-prepared surface modified Field’s alloy nanoparticles showed excellent dispersion property in PAO and the nanofluid exhibit good thermal stability. The tribological properties of the nanofluid were tested by a ball to disk wear and friction machine and it showed that the additive of Field’s alloy nanoparticles can effectively improve the lubricating behaviours compared to the pure PAO oil. When the added mass concentration was 0.08 wt%, the friction coefficient and the wear scar diameter were both smallest.

Keywords: Field’s alloy, nanoparticles, nanoemulsification, nanofluid, tribological properties