Friction and wear characteristics of vegetable oils using nanoparticles for sustainable lubrication

The non biodegradability associated with the mineral oils, ever increasing global demand for lubricants and limited crude oil resources have led to a paradigm shift of focus from non-renewable to renewable. The problems of friction and wear being innate to engineering applications, further poses environmental hazards by way of more fuel consumption and wear debris. The present paper is aimed to highlight the research studies carried out to exploit the addition of nanoparticle additives in vegetable oils. The encouraging results obtained therein suggest that vegetable oils have a tremendous potential to be used as lubricating oils. Moreover, the issues which are limiting their use have also been presented in this paper.