Dependence of pH level on tribological effect of graphene oxide as an additive in water lubrication

A study of the effectiveness of graphene oxides (GO) dispersed in water as a lubricant additive between tungsten carbide (WC) pin against stainless steel (SUS304) plate was carried out. A 0.1 wt.% GO was prepared and used as a lubricant under an applied load of 3 N for 20,000 friction cycles of reciprocating tribological testing. The results show that a GO dispersion with pH 3 provided the lowest friction coefficient, which was approximately 0.05. Worn areas on the wear track of the SUS304 flat plate and WC ball surface were also small. The increasing pH obviously affected the tribological properties, where the friction coefficient increased to approximately 0.10-0.20 in the steady state for pH 5, pH 7 and pH 9. Meanwhile, a GO dispersion with pH 10 was not able to provide good tribological properties for the tested materials. The observations on microscopic images revealed the formation of tribofilms on the wear tracks for low pH. The tribofilms caused reduction of the friction force and protected the plates from severe wear during the sliding tests.