Synthesis of water-soluble Cu nanoparticles and evaluation of their tribological properties and thermal conductivity as a water-based additive

Efficient and sustainable use of water-based lubricants is essential for energy efficiency.Therefore,the use of water-lubricated mechanical systems instead of conventional oil lubricants is extremely attractive from the viewpoint of resource conservation.In this study,water-soluble Cu nanoparticles of size approximately 3 nm were prepared at room temperature(around 25 °C) via in-situ surface modification.The tribological behavior of the as-synthesized Cu nanoparticles as an additive in distilled water was evaluated using a universal micro-tribotester.The results show that the as-synthesized Cu nanoparticles,as a water-based lubricant additive,can significantly improve the tribological properties of distilled water.In particular,the lowest friction coefficient of 0.06 was obtained via lubrication with a concentration of 0.6 wt% of Cu nanoparticles in distilled water,which is a reduction of 80.6% compared with that obtained via lubrication with distilled water alone.It is considered that some Cu nanoparticles entered the contact area of the friction pairs to form a complex lubricating film and prevent direct contact of the friction pairs.Furthermore,some Cu nanoparticles in the solution accelerate the heat transfer process,which also results in good tribological properties.