lubricants Article Nanotribological Performance Factors for Aqueous Suspensions of Oxide Nanoparticles and Their Relation to Macroscale Lubricity 1, 2, 1 3 Biplav Acharya * , Tyler N. Pardue y, Liangliang Su , Alex I. Smirnov , Donald W. Brenner 2 and Jacqueline Krim 1,* 1 Department of Physics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA;
[email protected] 2 Department of Material Science & Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA;
[email protected] (T.N.P.);
[email protected] (D.W.B.) 3 Department of Chemistry, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA;
[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected] (B.A.);
[email protected] (J.K.) Current address: Materials Department, University of California, Santa Barbara. y Received: 25 April 2019; Accepted: 3 June 2019; Published: 7 June 2019 Abstract: Quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) measurements of nanotribological properties of statistically diverse materials combinations of nanoparticles and substrate electrodes in aqueous suspensions are reported and compared to macroscale measurements of the same materials combinations for a subset of the nanoparticle combinations. Four ceramic nanoparticles, TiO2, SiO2, Al2O3, and maghemite (γ-Fe2O3) and ten substrate materials (Au, Al, Cr, Cu, Mo, Ni, Pt, SiO2, Al2O3, and SS304) were studied. The QCM technique was employed to measure frequency and motional resistance changes upon introduction of nanoparticles into the water surrounding its liquid-facing electrode. This series of experiments expanded prior studies that were often limited to a single nanoparticle - solid liquid combination. The variations in QCM response from one nanoparticle to another are observed to be far greater than the variation from one substrate to another, indicating that the nanoparticles play a larger role than the substrates in determining the frictional drag force levels.