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Solid Lubricant Helps Prevent Friction at High Temperatures

A pair of cogs with a chain looped around one.
Credit: Mike Hindle/ Unsplash
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Through a multi-university collaboration, researchers at Virginia Tech have discovered a new, solid lubricating mechanism that can reduce friction in machinery at extremely high temperatures. It works well beyond the breakdown temperature of traditional solid lubricants such as graphite, and the findings were published in Nature Communications.


“This breakthrough solid-state lubricant could change how we design materials for high-tech engines, making them last longer and work better under extreme conditions,” said Rebecca Cai, associate professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and one of the authors of the study. “After decades of research, only about 20 solid lubricants have been identified.”

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The right lubricant could extend a jet engine’s life, saving millions of dollars, but most of those 20 lubricants break down when machinery reaches temperatures as hot as molten lava. The discovery is important because friction and wear were estimated to cost the U.S. economy over $1 trillion in 2023, equivalent to about 5 percent of the gross national product


Given the importance of materials in emerging areas like advanced manufacturing, these findings position Virginia Tech as a leader in innovative technologies and cutting-edge research with opportunities for transdisciplinary problem-solving.


Reference: Zhang Z, Hershkovitz E, An Q, et al. Spinel oxide enables high-temperature self-lubrication in superalloys. Nat Commun. 2024;15(1):10039. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-54482-w


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