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- 2013 (8) (entfernen)
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- Englisch (8)
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- BSA (2)
- Biointerface (2)
- Nanoparticles (2)
- Protein corona (2)
- Automotive braking (1)
- Ball milling (1)
- Colloidal stability (1)
- FIB-Technik (1)
- Friction (1)
- Laser arc deposition (1)
Different, partly complementary and partly redundant characterization methods were applied to study the transition of magnetite, graphite and MoS2 powders to mechanically alloyed nanostructures. The applied methods were: Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Mössbauer spectroscopy (MS), Raman spectroscopy (RS), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The main objective was to prepare a model material providing the essential features of a typical tribofilm forming during automotive braking, and to assess the impact of different constituents on sliding behaviour and friction level. Irrespective of the initial grain size, the raw materials were transferred to a nanocrystalline structure and mixed on a nanoscopic scale during high energy ball milling. Whereas magnetite remained almost unchanged, graphite and molybdenum disulphide were transformed to a nanocrystalline and highly disordered structure. The observed increase of the coefficient of friction was attributed to a loss of lubricity of the latter ingredient due to this transformation and subsequent oxidation.
Tribofilms formed during dry sliding usually exhibit a nanocrystalline structure and complicated composition. In the present study, tribofilms consisting mainly of a solid lubricant, namely graphite nanoparticles, are considered. Systems providing such tribofilms are candidates for anti-friction applications. Since sliding action always leads to mixing of the materials at both sides of the tribological interface, it was of major interest to study the impact of different amounts of a hard constituent, SiC in the considered case, within the soft matrix systematically. Furthermore, the impact of normal pressure was considered. A mechanically mixed layer was observed for the whole range of normal pressures and SiC volume fractions. The calculated coefficient of friction decreased significantly with increasing thickness of this layer but was only marginally affected by SiC volume fraction, which is good news for anti-friction applications.
A model based on movable cellular automata has been applied to study the sliding behaviour of tribofilms formed during automotive braking. Since it is not possible yet to determine the composition of real tribofilms quantitatively, final verification of modelling results is needed. This was done by preparing artificial third bodies with compositions and nanostructures matching the ones assumed for modelling. Pin-on-disc tests were performed while applying the artificial third bodies to the contact. The results revealed that not only the structure of the third body but also the amount of the applied normal pressure determines the COF obtained by modelling and that much better correlation between experimental and modelling results was obtained while assuming high normal pressures at asperity contacts.
Many performance properties of devices or interacting machine parts are related to superficial layers which often show completely different or at least modified microstructures compared to the bulk materials. A quasi non-destructive technique will be described which enables us to obtain detailed information of a material's state at a certain site of interest down to a depth of 10 µm from the surface with nanometre or even atomistic resolution.
The tribological behaviour of MoS2/ta-C double layer coatings deposited by Laser-Arc technology was investigated in vacuum and air. In vacuum environment, the friction coefficient against steel balls varies between 0.005 and 0.02 depending on the contact pressure. At high contact pressures, the friction coefficient is as low as 0.005 and the life time between 340,000 and 500,000 cycles. Furthermore, it is shown that a ta-C base layer improves the performance of MoS2 coating.
Surface analyses were performed before and after the tribological tests by means of SEM, EDX, XRD, and TEM. They show that in the top layer beneath the sliding surface crystallization of the initially quasi-amorphous MoS2 took place. TEM images also verified an orientation of the basal MoS2-lattice planes parallel to the surface.
A major requirement for the validation of methods assessing the risk associated with engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) is the use of reference materials (RMs). In the present contribution we review available RMs, ongoing projects and characterisation trends in the field. The conclusion is that actual approaches to RMs mostly deal with metrological considerations about single properties of the ENPs, typically their primary size, which can hardly be representative of nanoparticles characteristics in real testing media and therefore, not valid for reliable and comparable toxicological studies. As an alternative, we discussed the convenience and feasibility of establishing multi-parametric RMs for a series of ENPs, focusing on silica nanoparticles (SNPs). As a future perspective, the need to develop RMs based on hybrid nanoparticles is also discussed.
The need for a better understanding of nanoparticleprotein interactions and the mechanisms governing the resulting colloidal stability has been emphasised in recent years. In the present contribution, the short and long term colloidal stability of silica nanoparticles (SNPs) and silica–poly(ethylene glycol) nanohybrids (Sil–PEG) have been scrutinised in a protein model system. Well-defined silica nanoparticles are rapidly covered by bovine serum albumin (BSA) and form small clusters after 20 min while large agglomerates are detected after 10 h depending on both particle size and nanoparticle–protein ratio. Oppositely, Sil–PEG hybrids present suppressive protein adsorption and enhanced short and long term colloidal stability in protein solution. No critical agglomeration was found for either system in the absence of protein, proving that instability found for SNPs must arise as a consequence of protein adsorption and not to high ionic environment. Analysis of the small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) structure factor indicates a short-range attractive potential between particles in the silica-BSA system, which is in good agreement with a protein bridging agglomeration mechanism. The results presented here point out the importance of the nanoparticle surface properties on the ability to adsorb proteins and how the induced or depressed adsorption may potentially drive the resulting colloidal stability.
The study of protein corona formation on nanoparticles (NPs) represents an actual main issue in colloidal, biomedical and toxicological sciences. However, little is known about the influence of polymer shells on the formation and time evolution of protein corona onto functionalized NPs. Therefore, silicapoly(ethylene glycol) core–shell nanohybrids (SNPs@PEG) with different polymer molecular weights (MW) were synthesized and exhaustively characterized. Bovine serum albumin (BSA) at different concentrations (0.1–6 wt%) was used as model protein to study protein corona formation and time evolution. For pristine SNPs and SNPs@PEG (MW = 350 g/mol), zeta potential at different incubation times show a dynamical evolution of the nanoparticle–protein corona. Oppositely, for SNPs@PEG with MW ≥2000 g/mol a significant suppression of corona formation and time evolution was observed.
Furthermore, AFM investigations suggest a different orientation (side-chain or perpendicular) and Penetration depth of BSA toward PEGylated surfaces depending on the polymer length which may explain differences in protein corona evolution.