Synthesis of high purity Cr2AlC nanolamellas with improved tribological properties for oil-based additives

Herein, a novel simple method is presented to synthesize highly pure Cr2AlC powder by heating a 2Cr/xAl/C (molar ratio, x = 1, 1.1, 1.2) powder system between 1300 degrees C and 1400 degrees C with preliminary magnetic stirring mixing in alcohol. The purity of Cr2AlC is sensitive to the final temperature and raw material scale, and the excess Al plays a distinct role in improving the purity of the Cr2AlC. The tribological properties of Cr2AlC as an additive in 100SN base oil were evaluated by a UMT-2 ball-on-disc friction and wear tester. The results show that under determinate conditions, the base oil containing 0.6 wt% Cr2AlC sample presented good tribology performance under a load of 10 N. The improved tribological properties of the Cr2AlC samples could be attributed to the formation of a tribofilm in the friction process.