Nanotechnology Repairs Engine Damage in Cars

TruckElectric

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Nanotechnology Repairs Engine Damage in Cars

NASA-funded nanoparticle lubricant also works in satellites and space vehicles.
TB-0820-p56_fig1.jpg

All metal engine parts experience wear when lubricants fail to prevent the damage caused by friction; TriboTEX claims its product can reverse that damage by replacing the material worn away by friction. The company offers products formulated for a range of engine types, from large, high-performance engines in sports cars and semi-tractor trailers to the smaller engines in compact cars, lawn mowers, and generators.


Wear and tear on engine components is common because of friction and it happens in all machinery with moving parts. Lubricants that reduce friction can only delay and minimize inevitable damage. The idea of reversing that wear by fixing a worn part was a goal of Pavlo “Pasha” Rudenko, a Washington State University Ph.D. candidate who decided to research the use of smart nanoparticles to replace eroded material. Restoring damaged parts to a like-new condition was also intriguing to NASA, which awarded Rudenko a space grant to pursue the technology.

Parts that move in relative motion, either working together or against each other, will always experience friction and sooner or later, wear. When the friction between parts inhibits machine performance, lubricants are used. Many common lubricants are oil-based — mineral or plant — and contain numerous fortifying additives, without which the oil would quickly degrade. Additionally, these chemicals, dissolved or suspended in the oil, perform a variety of functions: they maximize viscosity at different temperatures, remove debris, and improve chemical stability.

Rudenko proposed creating a nanoparticle lubricant that would work at any temperature including in the extremes of space. The goal was to use an existing liquid lubricant to carry nanoparticles directly to the point of friction. He believed this solution would be ideal for satellites and space vehicles. In addition to keeping parts in good repair, such a nanofluid lubricant could extend the functional life of the systems using it. His initial research identified the best material — a type of ceramic that was effective, durable, and nontoxic.

The material, also called nano-flakes, is sticky on one side and smooth on the other. The sticky side is attracted to points of friction and attaches itself to those spots, leaving the smooth side facing out. This happens over and over, building up layers of nanoparticles until a given rough spot is smoothed over, much like filling in a pothole in a street. The heat and pressure that naturally occur with friction bond the nano-flakes together, forming a new, durable carbon-lattice surface that Rudenko calls “diamond-like.”

Even when the surface of a metal part appears smooth to the eye and touch, an atomic force microscope can reveal imperfections at the nanoparticle level that can and do create friction. With an aim toward fixing these tiny imperfections in engines, Rudenko started TriboTEX LLC in 2017 and became its chief technology officer. The first TriboTEX formula was created to work in automobiles.

TB-0820-p56_fig2.jpg
TriboTEX’s product can be added by the consumer directly to a warmed-up engine. From there, it begins to repair damage over time.

Today, more than 30,000 cars and trucks are using TriboTEX. That usage data is expanding the body of evidence that synthetic nanoparticles yield the intended results. The most common benefits drivers report are improved gas mileage, increased torque, and increased oil pressure.

In cars with 130,000 miles or more, the company claims that fuel economy can be improved up to 6 percent along with increased in-cylinder compression. The particles also decrease engine noise by filling in gaps and grooves as small as 40 microns — about the width of a human hair — although they also stop building up once the gap is filled. Cars can also increase their engine power up to 3 percent, said Rudenko, noting that this is remarkable for a treatment that circumvents the cost of dismantling any part of the engine. Adding TriboTEX to a vehicle every 40,000 miles will ensure that there are enough nanoparticles available to fix new instances of wear in parts of the engine that experience significant friction.

As consumers have used TriboTEX, they’ve suggested other potential applications and the company now offers a small-engine product for use in motorcycles, lawn mowers, generators, and compact cars. A high-performance version is formulated to work in diesel trucks and large-engine sports cars. The “big rig” formula treats semi-tractor trailer engines. A national commercial trucking company is testing TriboTEX in a number of trucks in its fleet. Rudenko is also working on using nanomaterials in aviation gearboxes.


SOURCE: Tech Briefs
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Crissa

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I don't see how this is at all plausible.

But I suppose we should at least test it.

This article is missing the names of any of these forces supposedly involved. (If one side of the flake is slippery, how do other flakes interact with it?)

-Crissa
 

Dids

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So many questions. If I take talcum powder and spray beeswax on a thin layer of it do I have sticky sided / slippery sided ceremic nano particles and and would it fill scratches in metal?
I am not saying this is a scam... I don't know enough. If it is a real product that does what it claims why not patent the process or the formula? The MSDS has all ingredients listed as proprietary, including the fragrance, why is there fragrance in a engine oil additive? Is it because they are using fragranced talc powder a.k.a. baby powder?
What is diamond like hardness? Diamond has a mohs hardness of 10. Does this product harden to a mohs 10?
Increases oil pressure... yeah it's a feature, not a bug. There are 2 ways to increase oil pressure. Increase pump efficiency which is the implied feature, or clog the flow channels.... which do I think is happening?

From their published study in a magazine called tribology international the ingredient is magnesium silicate hydroxide... aka talc.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0301679X17300531
 
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Crissa

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Several of the nano-particle things are stupid simple, though. Like monoatomic silver. It's just silver... but in monoatomic chains. And yet it works.

It's making it that's the hard part.

-Crissa
 

Challeco

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I don't see how this is at all plausible.

But I suppose we should at least test it.

This article is missing the names of any of these forces supposedly involved. (If one side of the flake is slippery, how do other flakes interact with it?)

-Crissa
I question any claim that professes to replace the material worn away by friction. I actually understand what is happening inside the cylinders. The friction is from spring steel rings and the physics of liquids (oil). The material is intended to seat/wear into shape against the cylinder wall and the piston ring lands. This process needs to happen in order to seal the combustion chamber under high pressure. Also, why does the engine need to be warm? The combustion temperatures are near 1400F, the oil is supposed to be effective cold, and the coolant jacket is only involved to abate the high temperatures down to effective operating temperatures for combustion efficiency. I think this is just one more snake oil sale preying on magical thinking.
 


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Will it "diamond encrust" all the rest of the parts of my engine, like the the crankcase, valve covers, oil ducts, etc? How does this magic fluid know what to coat and what not to? If it sounds too good...
 

Frankenblob

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Adhesives are adhesives it may "fill in" pits or pocks but how long before it flakes off?
 

Crissa

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I expect it works like seasoning pans works. Carbon coatings are pretty amazing.

Now, is this useful? Is the wear patterns creating just the right vortices that it fits in there but not the original surface? No idea. And they don't seem to, either.

-Crissa
 

Dids

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I expect it works like seasoning pans works. Carbon coatings are pretty amazing.

Now, is this useful? Is the wear patterns creating just the right vortices that it fits in there but not the original surface? No idea. And they don't seem to, either.

-Crissa
Not carbon coating on seasoned iron. It is a polymerization of fats. They typically use linseed oil since it has high ALA which creates a very tough coating.
 


Dids

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That's literally carbon. What do you think fats are made of?

-Crissa
Carbon, hydrogen, oxygen. Yes there is carbon but it is incorrect to call it a carbon coating since it is not that the hydrogen and oxygen are all driven off in heating leaving only the carbon. Some of the oxygen is radicalized and fat molecules cross link.
 

Ehninger1212

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Snake oil salesman strikes again!
 

OneLapper

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Diamond Like Coatings, know as DLC, have been used on diesel injectors for over a decade. I can say the VW TDI I had needed new injectors at 260k miles, I bought new injectors with DLC on them and they were still on the car when I sold it at 600k. So, DLC is a thing.... no idea if a product like above is legit.

I remember Slick50 in the 80s and 90s. Didn't that go away due to a lawsuit? Can't remember.
 
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Dids

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Diamond Like Coatings, know as DLC, have been used on diesel injectors for over a decade. I can say the VW TDI I had needed new injectors at 260k miles, I bought new injectors with DLC on them and they were still on the car when I sold it 600k. So, DLC is a thing.... no idea if a product like above is legit.

I remember Slick50 in the 80s and 90s. Didn't that go away due to a lawsuit? Can't remember.
Yes dlc is a thing. It is made from amorphus carbon. How does talc filling in a scratch go from magnesium silicon hydrogen and oxygen go to carbon?
But they don't claim dlc they claim to attract carbon from oil decomposition into diamond like hardness.
 
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Dids

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Several of the nano-particle things are stupid simple, though. Like monoatomic silver. It's just silver... but in monoatomic chains. And yet it works.

It's making it that's the hard part.

-Crissa
When you say it works.... ?
I do have a question. Wouldn't mono atomic silver cluster via Van der Waals into silver particles until the particle size was sufficient to cause ionic repulsion stronger than the Van der Waals force? Isn't that identical to ionic silver?
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