Tribological Properties and Self-repairing Effect of Palygorskite/Copper Nanocomposites as Lubricating Oil Additive

Palygorskite/copper nanocomposites were prepared in order to study the friction behaviour and self-repairing effect of HT200 tribopair. The friction and wear behaviors of the lubricant oil containing 4wt% nanocomposites were evaluated on an MMU-10G abrasive-wear tester. Results indicated that the average size of nanoparticles is 200nm and nanoparticle disperses homogeneously. The nanocomposites significantly improve the anti-wear performance. Wear mass loss decreases 41.7% and 63.2% compared with nano-palygoeskite and no additive. SEM and EDX examination of worn surfaces show that the incorporation of nano-copper and nano-palygorskite promote the formation of enriched films which play beneficial role for improving the wear properties.