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Graphene-oxide (GO) has been recognized as an excellent lubrication material owing to its two-dimensional structure and weak interlayer interactions. However, the functional groups of GO that can contribute to anti-friction, anti-wear, and superlubricity are yet to be elucidated. Hence, further improvement in GO-family materials in tribology and superlubricity fields is impeded. In this study, macroscale superlubricity with a coefficient of friction of less than 0.01 is achieved by exploiting the high adhesive force between amino groups within aminated GO (GO–NH2) nanosheets and SiO2. It was observed that GO–NH2 nanosheets form a robust adsorption layer on the worn surfaces owing to the high adsorption of amino groups. This robust GO–NH2 adsorption layer not only protects the contact surfaces and contributes to low wear, but also causes the shearing plane to transform constantly from solid asperities (high friction) into GO–NH2 interlayers (weak interlayer interactions), resulting in superlubricity. A SiO2-containing boundary layer formed by tribochemical reactions and a liquid film are conducive to low friction. Such macroscale liquid superlubricity provides further insights into the effect of functional groups within functionalized GO materials and a basis for designing functionalized GO materials with excellent tribological performances.


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Functionalized graphene-oxide nanosheets with amino groups facilitate macroscale superlubricity

Show Author's information Xiangyu GE1Zhiyuan CHAI1Qiuyu SHI2Jinjin LI3( )Jiawei TANG1Yanfei LIU1Wenzhong WANG1
School of Mechanical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China
State Grid Smart Grid Research Institute Co., Ltd., Beijing 102209, China
State Key Laboratory of Tribology, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China

Abstract

Graphene-oxide (GO) has been recognized as an excellent lubrication material owing to its two-dimensional structure and weak interlayer interactions. However, the functional groups of GO that can contribute to anti-friction, anti-wear, and superlubricity are yet to be elucidated. Hence, further improvement in GO-family materials in tribology and superlubricity fields is impeded. In this study, macroscale superlubricity with a coefficient of friction of less than 0.01 is achieved by exploiting the high adhesive force between amino groups within aminated GO (GO–NH2) nanosheets and SiO2. It was observed that GO–NH2 nanosheets form a robust adsorption layer on the worn surfaces owing to the high adsorption of amino groups. This robust GO–NH2 adsorption layer not only protects the contact surfaces and contributes to low wear, but also causes the shearing plane to transform constantly from solid asperities (high friction) into GO–NH2 interlayers (weak interlayer interactions), resulting in superlubricity. A SiO2-containing boundary layer formed by tribochemical reactions and a liquid film are conducive to low friction. Such macroscale liquid superlubricity provides further insights into the effect of functional groups within functionalized GO materials and a basis for designing functionalized GO materials with excellent tribological performances.

Keywords: superlubricity, functionalized graphene-oxide, aminated graphene-oxide, anti-friction and anti-wear

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Publication history

Received: 08 October 2021
Revised: 19 November 2021
Accepted: 04 December 2021
Published: 25 April 2022
Issue date: February 2023

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© The author(s) 2021.

Acknowledgements

This work is financially supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (Nos. 2020YFB2007300, 2020YFA0711003), the Foundation from State Key Laboratory of Tribology (No. SKLTKF20B01), Beijing Institute of Technology Research Fund Program for Young Scholars, the Fund of Key Laboratory of Advanced Materials of Ministry of Education (No. ADV21-4), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52005287).

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