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Friction 2024, 12(3): 439-451 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40544-023-0766-2
Research Article | Open Access | Issue | Published: 04 July 2023

In-situ formation of nitrogen doped microporous carbon nanospheres derived from polystyrene as lubricant additives for anti-wear and friction reduction

Show Author's Information Yixin WANG1,  Qi LU1,  Huijie XIE1,  Shujuan LIU1,  Qian YE1( ),  Feng ZHOU1,2( ),  Weimin LIU1,2
State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing, Center of Advanced Lubrication and Seal Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, China
State Key Laboratory of Solid Lubrication, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China
Keywords:
lubricant additives, anti-wear, friction reduction, carbon nanospheres, hypercrosslinked polystyrene
Cite this article:
WANG Y, LU Q, XIE H, et al. In-situ formation of nitrogen doped microporous carbon nanospheres derived from polystyrene as lubricant additives for anti-wear and friction reduction. Friction, 2024, 12(3): 439-451. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40544-023-0766-2
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

This study presents a nitrogen-doped microporous carbon nanospheres (N@MCNs) prepared by a facile polymerization–carbonization process using low-cost styrene. The N element in situ introduces polystyrene (PS) nanospheres via emulsion polymerization of styrene with cyanuric chloride as crosslinking agent, and then carbonization obtains N@MCNs. The as-prepared carbon nanospheres possess the complete spherical structure and adjustable nitrogen amount by controlling the relative proportion of tetrachloromethane and cyanuric chloride. The friction performance of N@MCNs as lubricating oil additives was surveyed utilizing the friction experiment of ball-disc structure. The results showed that N@MCNs exhibit superb reduction performance of friction and wear. When the addition of N@MCNs was 0.06 wt%, the friction coefficient of PAO-10 decreased from 0.188 to 0.105, and the wear volume reduced by 94.4%. The width and depth of wear marks of N@MCNs decreased by 49.2% and 94.5%, respectively. The carrying capacity of load was rocketed from 100 to 400 N concurrently. Through the analysis of the lubrication mechanism, the result manifested that the prepared N@MCNs enter clearance of the friction pair, transform the sliding friction into the mixed friction of sliding and rolling, and repair the contact surface through the repair effect. Furthermore, the tribochemical reaction between nanoparticles and friction pairs forms a protective film containing nitride and metal oxides, which can avert direct contact with the matrix and improve the tribological properties. This experiment showed that nitrogen-doped polystyrene-based carbon nanospheres prepared by in-situ doping are the promising materials for wear resistance and reducing friction. This preparing method can be ulteriorly expanded to multi-element co-permeable materials. Nitrogen and boron co-doped carbon nanospheres (B,N@MCNs) were prepared by mixed carbonization of N-enriched PS and boric acid, and exhibited high load carrying capacity and good tribological properties.


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Abstract
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Electronic supplementary material
About this article

In-situ formation of nitrogen doped microporous carbon nanospheres derived from polystyrene as lubricant additives for anti-wear and friction reduction

Show Author's information Yixin WANG1, Qi LU1, Huijie XIE1, Shujuan LIU1, Qian YE1( ), Feng ZHOU1,2( ), Weimin LIU1,2
State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing, Center of Advanced Lubrication and Seal Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, China
State Key Laboratory of Solid Lubrication, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China

Abstract

This study presents a nitrogen-doped microporous carbon nanospheres (N@MCNs) prepared by a facile polymerization–carbonization process using low-cost styrene. The N element in situ introduces polystyrene (PS) nanospheres via emulsion polymerization of styrene with cyanuric chloride as crosslinking agent, and then carbonization obtains N@MCNs. The as-prepared carbon nanospheres possess the complete spherical structure and adjustable nitrogen amount by controlling the relative proportion of tetrachloromethane and cyanuric chloride. The friction performance of N@MCNs as lubricating oil additives was surveyed utilizing the friction experiment of ball-disc structure. The results showed that N@MCNs exhibit superb reduction performance of friction and wear. When the addition of N@MCNs was 0.06 wt%, the friction coefficient of PAO-10 decreased from 0.188 to 0.105, and the wear volume reduced by 94.4%. The width and depth of wear marks of N@MCNs decreased by 49.2% and 94.5%, respectively. The carrying capacity of load was rocketed from 100 to 400 N concurrently. Through the analysis of the lubrication mechanism, the result manifested that the prepared N@MCNs enter clearance of the friction pair, transform the sliding friction into the mixed friction of sliding and rolling, and repair the contact surface through the repair effect. Furthermore, the tribochemical reaction between nanoparticles and friction pairs forms a protective film containing nitride and metal oxides, which can avert direct contact with the matrix and improve the tribological properties. This experiment showed that nitrogen-doped polystyrene-based carbon nanospheres prepared by in-situ doping are the promising materials for wear resistance and reducing friction. This preparing method can be ulteriorly expanded to multi-element co-permeable materials. Nitrogen and boron co-doped carbon nanospheres (B,N@MCNs) were prepared by mixed carbonization of N-enriched PS and boric acid, and exhibited high load carrying capacity and good tribological properties.

Keywords: lubricant additives, anti-wear, friction reduction, carbon nanospheres, hypercrosslinked polystyrene

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Publication history

Received: 12 August 2022
Revised: 18 February 2023
Accepted: 21 March 2023
Published: 04 July 2023
Issue date: March 2024

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© The author(s) 2023.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. U21A2046 and 51972272), and the Western Light Project of CAS (No. xbzg-zdsys-202118).

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