Characteristical Study of Coconut Oil Based Nano Lubricant

Abstract

Use of mineral oils as lubricants did created concerns because of the environmental issues. Use of mineral oils as lubricating oil in machineries create pollution problem. Sometimes the pollutions formed as a result of use of mineral oil may be hazardous to the environment, to the livings including humans. Vegetable oils are widely considered as a replacement for the existing conventional oils because of the renewable and biodegradable properties. They show good lubrication properties. Coconut oil is a vegetable oil which shows greater lubrication properties. Low oxidation and thermal stability, weak low-temperature properties and narrow range of available viscosities are the main disadvantages of coconut oil as lubricating oil. Butylated hydroxyl toluene as antioxidants, Ethyl Cellulose as pour point depressants and CuO nanoparticles were added to the coconut oil and physical, chemical and tribological properties were studied. From those analyses, the optimum concentrations of antioxidants, pour point depressants and nanoparticles obtained are 2%wt, 3%wt and 0.5%wt respectively. By adding optimum concentrations of additives and nanoparticles, coconut oil based nanolubricant was formulated.

Keywords: Vegetable oil, antioxidant, pour point, nanoparticles