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Effect of Temperature on Rheological Behaviors and Tribological Properties of Nano-silica Greases Prepared from Base Oils with Different Viscosities

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Abstract

Four kinds of nano-silica greases (NSGs) were prepared by poly-α-olefins (PAO4, PAO10, PAO40, and PAO100) with different viscosities, respectively. The effect of temperature on the properties of NSGs was investigated, and the difference and relation of rheological behaviors and tribological properties between various greases were compared. Results showed that the colloidal stability of NSGs was improved with the increase in the viscosity of base oils. The rheological behaviors test showed that the structural strength and apparent viscosity of greases decreased significantly with the elevation of temperature. Meanwhile, it was observed that the thixotropy of greases prepared from low-viscosity base oil was more susceptible to the influence of temperature, which was mainly related to the damage of colloidal structure. The tribological test showed that appropriate temperature rise was beneficial to improve the anti-wear and anti-friction properties of NSGs, and the higher the viscosity of the base oil was, the better the tribological properties of corresponding greases were. However, with the temperature continued to rise, the tribological performance of greases deteriorated gradually. In addition, the lubricating grease prepared from low-viscosity base oils exhibited better tribological performance than others because of the existence of a temperature spot. It was mainly related to the dispersion of the aggregated particles and the formation of deposition film on the surface of the friction pair.

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Data Availability

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article. Any further datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

This work was supported by Taishan Scholar Youth Expert Program, Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XDC04020600), and Key Program of the Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, CAS (No. KJZLZD-1).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Engineering Research Center of Nanomaterials, Henan University, Kaifeng, 475004, China

    Huanchen Liu & Shengmao Zhang

  2. State Key Laboratory of Solid Lubrication, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Huanchen Liu, Xiaoyu Wang, Qin Zhao, Huaigang Su, Xiaobo Wang & Wenjing Lou

  3. Qingdao Key Laboratory of Lubrication Technology for Advanced Equipment, Qingdao Center of Resource Chemistry & New Materials, Qingdao, 266100, China

    Huaigang Su, Xiaobo Wang & Wenjing Lou

  4. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Xiaoyu Wang

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  1. Huanchen Liu
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Contributions

Conceptualization, formal analysis, investigation, and writing—original draft: HL; Investigation: XW, QZ, and HS; Project administration: XW and SZ; Funding acquisition, supervision, writing—review and editing: WL.

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Correspondence to Shengmao Zhang or Wenjing Lou.

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Liu, H., Wang, X., Zhao, Q. et al. Effect of Temperature on Rheological Behaviors and Tribological Properties of Nano-silica Greases Prepared from Base Oils with Different Viscosities. Tribol Lett 71, 34 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11249-023-01702-x

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