Graphene, without any doubt, is the most mentioned buzzword in the chemical industry since last year. It is, known as the "king of the new materials", the thinnest and strongest nano material with the highest electric and thermal conductivity. It is predicted that graphene will “change twenty-first Century completely”, setting off a subversive industrial revolution globally. 

With the development of industrial products and automotive aftermarket, the user group of industrial and automotive lubricant oil is growing bigger and bigger. So is their demand for more effective and energy-efficient new products. As traditional single additives, Graphite and MoS2 are widely used in  lubricants. Although they improve anti-wear performance of lubricant, they have limitations in application.

Graphite has been used as industrial oil additive for more than forty years. But it can only work in a humid environment, which is very demanding for working conditions. If there is no enough water molecules in the air, the lubricating effect will be impacted. MoS2, on the contrary, can only work in a dry environment, the disadvantages of which are very obvious.  

Therefore, Graphene, a completely suitable and compatible general lubricating material, has emerged with incomparable advantages compared to traditional materials. Its two-dimension structure enables it to firmly adhere to the surface of stainless steel ball, impenetrable even by oxygen atoms. In addition, a few layers of graphene can work as a solid lubricant in a either wet or dry environment, solving the problem of working conditions, which has existed for many years. The Microtribology shows that the friction factor can be reduced from 0.9-1 to 0.15-0.16 by coating the graphene on the surface of steel. Abrasion loss and rate can be decreased by 3-4 orders of magnitude.

With the continuous technology upgrading in lubricant industry, many manufacturers have recognized the great advantages of graphene. They began to study how to blend graphene into lubricants and additives. Researchers said that the anti-wear lubricating additives blended with graphene, base oil and additives have stable quality and performance, which can be used to produce various lubricating oils with good anti-wear and lubricating performance.

Graphene’s excellent quality in lubrication, wear resistance and oxidation resistance are fully reflected when used in engine oils. Compared to traditional engine oils, the oil with graphene mainly has the following advantages:

l  Effectively avoiding oxidation brought by high temperature so as to extend oil change intervals;          

l  Significantly improving abrasion resistance and pressure resistance of lubricating oil so as to reduce wear loss;          

l  Good performance in waterproof, dustproof and anti-fouling;

l  Reducing the mechanical vibration and mechanical noise;          

l  Reducing the temperature of abrasion surface to keep oil’s viscosity;          

l  Greatly improving start-up performance of machines; reducing the mechanical wear off brought by machines’ start and stop.

Known as The Fourth Oil Company in China, Handi Lubricant has been adhering to the innovative model of independent research and development. Relying on its unique HYDROPURE technology, it launched series products of gasoline engine oils and diesel engine oils, featuring energy-saving and high efficiency. It also won the Technology Innovation Award of LubTop2016 China Lube Industry Annual List. In addition to HYDROPURE, Handi Lubricant also attaches great importance to the latest additive technology, in particular the application of graphene in existing lubricant system, so as to greatly enhance products’ performance in friction reducing, anti-wear and energy saving.

In the 17th China International Lubricants and Application Technology Exhibition held in this September, Mr. Wang Xiangmin, Technology Director of Handi Lubricant, said that Handi lubricant is working closely with peers in industry, well-known additives companies and scientific research institutes to study and address the dispersion and agglomeration problems of graphene. They hope for breakthroughs in lubricating oil technology to realize graphene application in lubricating oil.

Increase automobile productiveity and sales plus stricter industrial oil standards  are asking for a new type of more energy-saving lubricating oil. With government advocating energy saving and emission reductionand environmental protection, graphene will become the new favorite of lubricating oil industry, leading the industry to explore the blue ocean.