Preparation and tribological behaviors of magnesium silicate hydroxide-MoS2 nanoparticles as lubricant additive

s The tribological properties of lubricating oil during service life largely depend on the properties of lubricant additives . Herein, we present a hydrothermal synthesis of magnesium silicate hydroxide (MSH)-MoS 2 nanocomposite and evaluate its tribological performances and repairing properties on worn surfaces as lubricant additive in poly-alpha-olefin (PAO). The microstructure of MSH-MoS 2 powders is MSH nanotubes surrounded by layered MoS 2 . The tribological test results show that the anti-friction performance and wear resistance of the friction pair were improved by 27.7% and 37.4%, respectively, after adding 1.0 wt% MSH-MoS 2 into PAO. More importantly, the worn volume of the friction disk can be repaired by 33.2% after sliding 5 h under the lubrication of PAO with MSH-MoS 2 . The superior tribological performance should be attributed to the formation of robust tribofilm with low shear strength , high hardness, strong resistance to plastic deformation , and high bonding strength on the sliding surface.