Carbon Nanotori Structures for Thermal Transport Applications on Lubricants

Carbon nanostructures have been recently applied to improve industrial manufacturing processes and other materials; such is the case for lubricants used in the metal-mechanic industry. Nanotori are toroidal carbon nanostructures, obtained from chemical treatment of multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). This material has been shown to have superb anti-wear and friction reduction performance, having the ability to homogeneously disperse within water in concentrations between 1–2 wt.%. Obtained results of these novel nanostructures under water mixtures and novel additives were a set point to our studies in different industrial lubricants. In the present work, nanotori structures have been applied in various filler fractions as reinforcement to evaluate the behavior in thermal transport of water-based (WB) and oil-based (OB) lubricants. Temperature-dependent experiments to evaluate the thermal conductivity were performed using a thermal water bath ranging from room temperature up to 323 K. The obtained results showed a highly effective and favorable improvement in the heat transport of both lubricants; oil-based results were better than water-based results, with nanotori structures increasing the lubricants’ thermal transport properties by 70%, compared to pure lubricant.