Biolubricants: Synthesis, Properties, Applications and Future Prospects

A special issue of Coatings (ISSN 2079-6412). This special issue belongs to the section "Surface Characterization, Deposition and Modification".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2025 | Viewed by 1756

Special Issue Editor

School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, Qingdao University of Technology, Qingdao 266229, China
Interests: nanofluids MQL; grinding; intelligent manufacturing; green manufacturing; wearable sensor
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

With the continuous promotion of green, low-carbon, and circular-development economic systems, energy conservation, environmental protection, low carbon usage, and efficiency have become new requirements that various industries must meet in the development process, and the lubricant industry is no exception. At present, the main formula for lubricants is still dominated by mineral oil, and a very large amount of mineral oil is leaked or discharged into the environment. However, the biodegradability of mineral oil lubricants is poor. When they scatter to the ground or enter water, they will gradually accumulate and form non-degradable hydrocarbons, directly polluting soil and water. Moreover, waste mineral oil contains volatile organic pollutants, such as benzene series and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, as well as a small amount of heavy metals, which pose great harm to the ecological environment and to human health.

Biolubricants offer new hope in terms of the sustainable development of human society. Biolubricants are generally considered to be lubricants made from base oils derived from vegetable oils or derivatives of vegetable oils. To protect the environment and develop their economy, many countries have put "Lubricants and Environmental Issues" on the agenda, formulated environmental protection regulations, put forward clear protection requirements, and committed to pursuing developments in, and research on, biolubricants. Biolubricants can meet the requirements of various industries for lubricant use without causing harm to human health or the environment. However, the synthesis and preparation mechanisms, anti-wear and friction reduction mechanisms, and tribological properties of biological lubricants, as well as the impacts of the actual application conditions on lubrication performance, are still unclear, resulting in a lack of scientific theoretical support for the application of biolubricants. Therefore, this Special Issue aims to introduce the latest developments in biolubricants and reveal the mechanism by which biolubricants improve anti-friction and wear reduction performance.

Dr. Min Yang
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • minimum quantity lubrication (MQL)
  • electrostatic atomization
  • multi-energy field empowerment
  • biolubricants
  • anti-wear and friction reduction mechanisms
  • nano-reinforced biolubricants
  • cutting and grinding of hard-to-machine materials

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 15244 KiB  
Article
Surface Quality of High-Concentration SiC/Al Grinding with Electroassisted Biolubricant MQL
by Weidong Zhang, Dongzhou Jia, Min Yang, Qi Gao, Teng Gao, Zhenjing Duan and Da Qu
Coatings 2024, 14(7), 804; https://doi.org/10.3390/coatings14070804 - 28 Jun 2024
Viewed by 700
Abstract
SiC/Al composites are widely used in aerospace and other fields due to their excellent mechanical properties. For large-concentration composites, due to the extremely high proportion of SiC and the unstable interface between the two phases, the SiC particles are broken and detached during [...] Read more.
SiC/Al composites are widely used in aerospace and other fields due to their excellent mechanical properties. For large-concentration composites, due to the extremely high proportion of SiC and the unstable interface between the two phases, the SiC particles are broken and detached during the processing, which makes the surface quality of the workpiece insufficient to meet the service requirements. Electrically assisted cutting technology is expected to break through this technical bottleneck. This paper investigates the surface quality of high-concentration SiC/Al grinding with electroassisted biolubricant MQL. The surface morphology after processing is observed. Firstly, by comparing the traditional grinding and electrically assisted grinding conditions, it is found that the fundamental reason for the improvement in the grinding surface quality using a pulse current is the improvement in the Al plasticity. Secondly, based on the thermal effect and non-thermal effect of the pulse current, the influence of the electrical parameters (current, duty cycle and frequency) on the machining indication quality is discussed. It is found that when the current and duty cycle increase, the machining surface quality will also increase, while the frequency change has little effect on the surface quality. Finally, friction and wear experiments are carried out on the grinding surface under different working conditions to explore the friction and wear characteristics of the surface of the workpiece. The results show that the pulse current can significantly improve the wear resistance of the grinding surface. Full article
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28 pages, 38137 KiB  
Article
Numerical Simulation of the Dynamic Behavior Exhibited by Charged Droplets Colliding with Liquid Film
by Jun Wang, Dongzhou Jia, Min Yang, Yanbin Zhang, Da Qu and Zhenlin Lv
Coatings 2024, 14(6), 676; https://doi.org/10.3390/coatings14060676 - 27 May 2024
Viewed by 675
Abstract
Since droplet collision with walls has become a research hotspot, scholars have conducted a large number of studies on the dynamic behavior of electrically neutral droplets colliding with dry walls. However, with the rapid development of electrostatic spray technology, there is an increasingly [...] Read more.
Since droplet collision with walls has become a research hotspot, scholars have conducted a large number of studies on the dynamic behavior of electrically neutral droplets colliding with dry walls. However, with the rapid development of electrostatic spray technology, there is an increasingly urgent need to study the dynamic process of collision between charged droplets and walls. In this paper, considering the actual working conditions of electrostatic spray, an electric field model is introduced based on the two-phase flow field. Through the coupling of a multiphase flow field and electric field and a multiphysics field, the dynamic numerical calculation method is used to explore the collision electrodynamic behavior of charged droplets and liquid film. The dynamic evolution process of the formation and development of the liquid crown in the collision zone was clarified, and the critical velocity and critical Weber number of the rebound, spreading, and splashing of charged droplets were tracked. The distribution characteristics of electrostatic field, pressure field, and velocity field under different working conditions are analyzed, and the dynamic mechanism of the charged droplet collision liquid film under multi-physics coupling is revealed based on the electro-viscous effect. It is confirmed that the external electric field can increase the critical velocity of droplet splashing and fragmentation and promote the spreading and fusion behavior of droplets and liquid films. The influence of the impact angle of charged droplets on the collision behavior was further explored. It was found that the charged droplets not only have a smaller critical angle for fragmentation and splashing, but also have a faster settling and fusion speed. Full article
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