Superlubricity Characteristics Using Ceramic Composite Mineral Powder as Lubricating Oil Additive

A kind of composite powder mixed serpentine with silica is used as lubricant additive in this paper. The tribological property of 1045 steel pairs lubricated with composite additive oil was studied using an AMSLER friction and wear tester. The surface topographies and composition of the worn surface of 1045 steel rings were analyzed by SEM and XPS. The experimental results show that the composite additive can achieve an ultra low friction coefficient of 0.007 for the 1045 steel friction pairs. The worn surface is smooth with only a small amount of scratches on the local area. The XPS result after 100h test shows the carbon was concentrated on the worn surface besides Fe, O, Si and Mg. The existence of the carbon-rich surface layer is the main reason for the superlubricity characteristics.