Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

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Materials Today: Proceedings

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Lubricity improvement of the raw jojoba oil with TiO2 nanoparticles as

an additives at different loads applied
Mohammed Zaid, Avinash Kumar, Yashvir Singh ⇑
Department of Mechnaical Engineering, Graphic Era Deemed to be University, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This study involves TiO2 nanoparticles for the improvement of the lubricity of the oil. The process is
Received 18 April 2020 accomplished by using DUCOM tribometer. During this study, different loads are applied at constant tem-
Accepted 14 July 2020 perature during the whole process. Various concentrations of the nanoparticles are considered which are
Available online xxxx
selected based on the previous studies. The minimum coefficient of friction was obtained when nanopar-
ticles are added up to 0.3 percent. During higher amount of nanoparticles addition, more wear of the disc
Keywords: occurs. At 0.3 percentage of nanoparticles, improved results in terms of wear of the parts have been
Friction
observed with comparison to the raw jojoba oil.
Jojoba oil
Nanoparticles
Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
TiO2 Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Confer-
Wear ence on Materials, Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering for Sustainable Developments-2020.

1. Introduction vegetableoils which can be addressed by using different additives.

The purpose of the lubricant is to minimize the wear of the
materials during their contact. The problem comes with conven-
tional lubricants about their degradation [1]. There degradation
results in harm to the environment as they are toxic and pollute
the environment. To address this issue, non-edible oils are the
appropriate candidates as they are not included in the food chain.
The use of mineral oil is enormous among oil-based commodi-
ties due to its application for lubrication reasons. There are some
environmental problems associated with the use of hydrocarbon
oil since they are accountable for marine pollution owing to spil-
lage after use [2]. There is a need to find an alternative that may
be used to replace synthetic oil. Throughout view of this point,
the author concentrated on the discovery of a replacement for syn-
thetic oil. Biolubricant is one of the assets and plays a key role in
the improvement of sustainability, which is progressively eco-
nomic and innocuous to nature where it is used. Biolubricant has
better biodegradability compared to oil-based synthetic oils, but
it lacks advanced properties as with traditional lubricants [3].
Non-edible vegetable oils are a better alternative as a lubricant
due to their better properties like higher viscosity, flash point and
pour point. Certain limitations are associated with the
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: yashvirsingh21@gmail.com (Y. Singh).
Various vegetable crops are available like Neem, Madhuca Indica,
Jojoba, Jatropha, karanja etc [4]. Most of the studies were per-
formed by considering biolubricant as an additive to the mineral
oil. Singh et al. [5] performed a test on the mongongo oil as a biol-
ubricant. Better lubricity was attained during its mixing up to 15%
to the conventional lubricant. While comparing two non-edible oil
based lubricants, better lubricity was observed with jatropha oil in
comparison to the pongamia oil [6].
To improve their properties, certain additives are available but
they are non-biodegradable and toxic in nature. This study focused
on biodegradable oil with the introduction of nanoparticles suit-
able for tribological applications. Very few studies have been con-
ducted while including nanoparticles for the tribological
applications.
Xie et al. [7] evaluated the effect of silicon dioxide and molyb-
denum disulfide nanoparticles on engine oil tribology. They out-
lined the effect of the nanoparticle quantity on the stress-bearing
limit and the stability of the grease film. In addition, molybdenum
disulfide in lubricants has been shown to influence the load-
bearing limit and the strength of the oil film as seen. Mirjavadi
et al. [8] stated that the implementation of TiO2 nanoparticles
provde better anti wear properties as they contain more hardness
which resist abrasion of the surfaces [9]. Minium COF and wear
was observed by the introduction of TiO2 nanoparticles as they
form better protective film on the surface [10]. The application of

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.07.437
2214-7853/Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Materials, Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering for
Sustainable Developments-2020.

Please cite this article as: M. Zaid, A. Kumar and Y. Singh, Lubricity improvement of the raw jojoba oil with TiO2 nanoparticles as an additives at different
loads applied, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.07.437
2 M. Zaid et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

Al2O3 and TiO2 nanoparticles also show improved tribological Table 1

behavior during their introduction to the diesel engine [11]. Specification of the nanopartciles provided by
the supplier.
The application of jojoba oil was only confined to the diesel
engine usage in the form of biodiesel in the earlier studies [4,12– Property TiO2 nanoparticles
14]. But none of the studies have been reported while considering Density (g/cm3) 4.23
jojoba oil for the tribological applications. Morphology Spherical
In this study, the tribological characteristics of jojoba oil at var- Size (nm) 25–55
Color Grey
ious loads was assessed. The nanoparticles are blended in various
proportions to the jojoba oil and analysis was done on pin-on disc
tribometer.

Table 2
2. Methods Viscosity assessment of the samples for the test.

S. No. Samples Redwood seconds

During this process, the first phase includes the addition of the
nanoparticles to the lubricant. In the second phase, bio based lubri- 1. JO 117.28
2. JO + 0.15 220.13
cant was tested on suitable machine to check their tribological
3. JO + 0.3 222.38
characteristics. Fig. 1 mentioned the methodology adopted during 4. JO + 0.45 227.22
this process. 5. JO + 0.9 231.18

2.1. Nano lubricant development

The nanoparticles were procured from the Nanolabs India Pvt.

Ltd. The purity of the particles was 99% and their density along
with size was provided by the supplier with proof. The purity
was assured as they are provided with the proper SEM images of
the nanoparticles. Table 1 shows the specifications of the
nanoparticles.
For blending of the nanoparticles to the base oil, jojoba oil was
procured from the Vama oil Pvt. Ltd, Coimbatore. To improve the
properties of the jojoba oil, nanoparticles are added. During the
process, ultrasonicator was used for mixing purpose. The nanopar-
ticles are mixed to the jojoba oil in different ratios and the blending
was performed in ultrasonicator for the duration of one hour. The
stability of the nanoparticles and their proper dispersion was
checked by passing ultra violet rays through the samples. The
nanoparticles are added in the ratio 0.15, 0.3, 0.45, and 0.9 percent. Fig. 2. Pin on disc experimental set up.
The following are the names assigned to the samples for testing
purpose: 1) JO 2) JO + 0.15 3) JO + 0.45 4) JO + 0.5 5) JO + 0.9.
2.2.2. Expermental set up details
2.2. Properties characterization For performing the tribological study, the DUCOM tribometer
was used as shown in Fig. 2. The tribometer was equipped with
2.2.1. Determination of viscosity sensors for getting the frictional forces and check the wear of the
The redwood viscometer was used for the measurement as per material. During the test, a 10 mm diameter and 28 mm in length
ASTM D-445-06. The details of the viscosity for different solutions of the pin were used. The pin was made of aluminium alloy of 6
are provided in Table 2. There is no changes with respect to flash series and the disc was made of steel with a grade of EN 31 [15].
point and fire point occurred within the base oil while adding The temperature of 150 °C was maintained during the whole pro-
nanoparticles. So, they are not described within the following cess. Various conditions are applied to the pin and the details are
table. mentioned in Table 3.

Fig. 1. The methodology adopted during the analysis.

Please cite this article as: M. Zaid, A. Kumar and Y. Singh, Lubricity improvement of the raw jojoba oil with TiO2 nanoparticles as an additives at different
loads applied, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.07.437
 M. Zaid et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx 3

Table 3
Conditions taken for the test.

S. No. Conditions Quantity

1. Load (kgf or N) 4.0 (40), 6.0 (60), 8.0 (80), 10 (1 0 0)
2. Track diameter (mm or m) 90 or 0.09
3. Sliding speed (rpm) 150
4. Sliding distance (m) 3000

Fig. 5. Wear of the samples at different sliding speeds.

3.2. Coefficient of friction

Fig. 4 shows the COF for the different samples while considering
dissimilar loads. It can be observed from the figure that maximum
friction occurred at higher loads for all the samples. It was due to
the applied maximum pressure when the load is increased. The
addition of the nanoparticles improved the lubricity of the jojoba
oil. The minimum COF was attained up to the addition of 0.3%. This
was due to the facilitating rolling motion of the nanoparticles
which provides profit by reducing friction on the external part of
Fig. 3. Nanoparticles concentration effect on base jojoba oil. the material. After an increase in concentration, more amount of
friction has occurred on the parts during their contact. With an
increase in nanoparticle concentration, agglomeration of the parti-
3. Results and discussions cles on the surface of the materials gets started which ultimately
results in eroding of the material. The nanoparticles are mixed to
3.1. Nano lubricant viscosity analysis the jojoba oil resulting in the development of the defensive film.

Fig. 3 shows the changes in the viscosity of the nano lubricant
samples. The viscosity was checked at 40 °C as per ASTM stan-
dards. It can be seen that the blending of the nanoparticles to the
raw jojoba oil results in advancement of the viscosity level. The
increase in nanoparticles concentration allows more viscosity.
3.3. Wear
The wear of the materials at various loads can be seen in Fig. 5.
The wear was calculated based on the difference in the weight of
the pin. The maximum wear has occurred at higher loads. The
blending of the nanoparticles to the base oil results in less wear

Fig. 4. Nanoparticles concentration effect to the Jojoba oil. Fig. 6. Wear scar diameter with nanoparticles addition.

Please cite this article as: M. Zaid, A. Kumar and Y. Singh, Lubricity improvement of the raw jojoba oil with TiO2 nanoparticles as an additives at different
loads applied, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.07.437
4 M. Zaid et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx
up to 0.3%. When nanoparticles are added up to 0.3% concentration
to the jojoba oil, proper bonding of the nanoparticles with the oil
molecules results in less wear of the particles. The jojoba oil con-
tains unsaturated fatty acids which help in reducing wear by creat-
ing the dipolar nature of the molecules. The same reasons have
been stated in the literature [16]. When more amount of nanopar-
ticles added, it gets agglomerated on the surface which results in
more amount of wear of the pin [11,17].
Fig. 6 shows the wear scar diameter at several loads. For obtain-
ing the wear scar of the material, metallurgical microscope was
used which is equipped with view 7 software. The minimum wear
scar diameter was observed up to 0.3% concentration. The jojoba
oil contains more amount of fatty acids which helps them in build-
ing a protective film between the parts in contact. Up to 0.3% con-
centration, suitable mixing of the nanoparticles with the jojoba oil
was obtained which helps them in resisting wear of the material.
The maximum scar was obtained at higher nanoparticles addition.
The wear scar was the measurement of the scar formed on the sur-
face of the material. The higher scar was formed during more
nanoparticles addition as they get agglomerated on the surface of
the material.
4. Conclusions
During the tribo analysis of the jojoba oil with nanoparticles
addition results in the following conclusions.
 Higer amount of coefficient of friction occurred at 10 kgf loads
during all tests.
 More amount of friction coefficient was obtained when
nanoparticles addition exceeded above 0.3 percent.
 The adding of the nanoparticles up to 0.3% to the jojoba oil pro-
vides better lubricity to the oil.
 The more amount of nanoparticles mixing to the jojoba oil pro-
vides more wear of the material when it exceeds 0.3 percent
concentration. During the wear analysis, maximum wear was
also observed at 10 kgf applied loads.
 The less amount of wear scar diameter was obtained at 0.3 per-
cent nanoparticles addition to the jojoba oil.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.
Please cite this article as: M. Zaid, A. Kumar and Y. Singh, Lubricity improvement of the raw jojoba oil with TiO2 nanoparticles as an additives at different
loads applied, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.07.437
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