Controllable fabrication of magnesium silicate hydroxide reinforced MoS2 hybrid nanomaterials as effective lubricant additives in PAO

Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) nanoparticles have poor dispersion stability and poor resistance to extreme pressures, which severely limit their application as lubricant additives. Here, magnesium silicate hydroxide (MSH) reinforced MoS2 hybrid nanomaterials were synthesized by a facile hydrothermal method, and their tribological behaviors as lubricant additives to polyalphaolefin (PAO) were investigated. Results show that the controllable preparation of MSH-MoS2 nanoparticles with different morphologies, compositions, and binding states can be achieved simply by changing the reaction temperature. MoS2 and MSH combine better at the reaction temperature of 220 degrees C (MM2) because of the edge-pinning effect caused by noncoherent. Due to its abundance of active anchoring sites, MM2 exhibits superior dispersion stability. Importantly, the anti-friction performance, wear-resistance, and last non-seizure load of the friction pairs lubricated in PAO-MM2 are improved by 44.8%, 41.2 %, and 116.6%, respectively. The outstanding tribological behaviors should be credited to the formed robust bilayer tribo-film: the upper layer contains abundant MoS2, providing outstanding antifriction functionality; whereas the adjacent layer, which is made up of MSH and reaction products of the lubricant additive and substrate, strongly ensures the stability of the first layer.