Preparation, friction and wear properties of hydrophobic lanthanum borate nanorods in rapeseed oil

Oleic acid (denoted as OA) surface-caped lanthanum borate nanorods, abbreviated as OA/LaBO3·H2O, were prepared via hydrothermal method. The microstructures of the as-prepared OA/LaBO3·H2O nanorods were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques. The friction and wear properties of OA/LaBO3·H2O nanorods in rapeseed oil were evaluated with a four-ball tribo-tester. The results show that the as-prepared OA/LaBO3·H2O nanorods are hydrophobic and display nanorods morphology with uniform diameter of about 50 nm and length of up to 500 nm. In the meantime, OA/LaBO3·H2O nanorods can obviously improve the anti-wear and friction-reducing capacities of rapeseed oil, and the optimal anti-wear and friction-reducing properties of rapeseed oil were obtained at an OA/LaBO3·H2O content of 1% (mass fraction).