Researchers at the US Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory are combining nanodiamonds with two-dimensional molybdenum disulfide layers and breaking them to create a self-generating, extremely low-friction dry lubricant. It lasts for a long time and is almost permanent. With hundreds of industrial uses, almost anywhere, as long as two pieces of metal are rubbed under dry conditions, almost all can be used.
In 2015, nanotechnology department Anirudha Sumant and his colleagues for the first time demonstrated the super lubrication (close to zero friction) on the engineering scale through the combination of graphene and nanodiamond, thus realizing the breakthrough of solid lubrication technology. This method is revolutionary , Since then his team has continued to further develop technology.
Recently, Sumant replaced graphene with molybdenum disulfide to observe the performance of other two-dimensional materials. He hopes that this process is similar to that observed with graphene-nano-diamond lubricants. However, when the first author of the study Dr. Argonne postdoctoral researcher Diana Berman could not see nano-diamonds in this material. Instead, the team was surprised to find onion-like carbon spheres. Molybdenum disulfide decomposed into molybdenum and sulfur, and reacted with nano-diamonds and converted into Onion-like carbon.
The Argonne team realized that sulfur diffusion is increasing the strain of nanodiamonds and then destroying them and converting them into onion-like carbon. Sankaranarayanan said that this is a new discovery, and their efforts have also unleashed another about how other two-dimensional materials interact with nanometers. The secret of diamond interaction.
Diamond is one of the special materials found in nature. It has the highest hardness, low coefficient of friction, high modulus of elasticity, high thermal conductivity, high insulation, wide energy gap, high sound propagation rate, and good chemical stability, as shown in the table below. Although natural diamonds have these unique properties, they have always existed only in the form of gemstones, whose properties of variability and rarity greatly limit their applications. And Luoyang Yuxin Diamond made of CVD diamond films will give these excellent physics The combination of chemical properties and low cost compared to natural diamond enables the preparation of a variety of geometries and has broad application prospects in the electronics, optics, and machinery industries.
