Synthesis, Chemical Modification and Tribological Evaluation of Plant oil as Bio-Degradable Low Temperature Lubricant

Abstract

An increasing demand for environmentally acceptable lubricant has led researchers to look to plant oils as an alternative to petroleum based lubricants. These plant oil based products are sustainable, renewable and biodegradable that can replace petroleum derived products in numerous industrial applications such as stabilizers, plasticizers, cutting fluids, automotive lubricants and in coating formulations. For formulation of bio-degradable lubricants, crude rapeseed oil, methyl ester of sunflower oil, palm oil and rapeseed oil were selected and to this bio-additive package were added to improve some of the properties. Various tribological studies of the formulated lubricants were evaluated then it is compared with conventional synthetic lubricant SAE20W40. However plant oils are limited by their poor low temperature fluidity and poor oxidative stability. In order to produce rapeseed oil based bio-lubricant with good oxidative stability and low pour point, in the present work the raw rapeseed oil was chemically modified via, epoxidation and hydroxylation process. The formation of the epoxidized group was confirmed by Fourier Transform Infrared spectral (FTIR) analysis. Epoxidized rapeseed oil showed superior oxidative stability, lower pour point and friction reducing ability compared to base oil.