Kinetics of liquid-phase shear exfoliation of graphite in synthetic oils

Abstract

Lubricants modified with nanosized particles are of great interest to science and industry, since they have much better tribological characteristics compared to traditional lubricants. One of the most promising nanoparticles is graphene, which has an extremely low coefficient of friction, is very wear-resistant and environmentally friendly. Today, the main problem for the development of a new nano-lubricant is the creation of an environmentally friendly and cheap technology for the industrial production of graphene suspensions or graphene concentrates for the modification of traditional lubricants. The article describes the process of liquid-phase shear exfoliation of graphite in a rotary apparatus with moving blades, in synthetic oils. The kinetic dependences of the exfoliation process, i.e. the dependence of the concentration of graphene nanostructures in suspension over time at different values of the process parameters. It has been experimentally proved that using a stator-rotor mixer with moving blades, it is possible to obtain graphene nanostructure concentrations of at least 2 mg / ml.