Lubricity performance of Jatropha oil incorporated PTFE and h-BN as additives for electric vehicles transmission lubrication

Purpose Concerns over the pollution caused by internal combustion vehicles have increased owing to population and industrialization increment. Addressing the confrontations, the demand for electric vehicles (EVs) as a combustion engine substitute became necessary in responding to environmental worries from internal combustion. The development of bio lubricant in lubricating the sliding parts of EVs is required to maintain the sustainability idea and to improve the system performance, which this research tends to explore. Design/methodology/approach In this research, the enhancement of base Jatropha oil was done using polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and hexagonal boron nitrate (h-BN) as additives. Different characterization was conducted on the new formulation to ascertain its anticorrosion tendency. The wear and friction behavior of the formulations on the tribo-pairs surfaces in contact were investigated using ball on flat tribometer to determine their tribological responsiveness as mineral lubricant alternative. To explore the surface topography, surface profilometer, scanning electron microscope and energy dispersive X-ray investigations were PTFE, lubrication and EV carried out. Findings The test’s input parameters were EVs’ usual load and sliding speed, and the addition concentrations for PTFE were 0.3 Wt.%, 0.4 Wt.%, 0.5 Wt.% and 0.6 Wt.%, whereas h-BN were 0.4 Wt.%, 0.8 Wt.% and 1.2 Wt.%, respectively. The study on corrosion demonstrated resistance when applied PTFE and h-BN additives in Jatropha oil. The analysis revealed that 0.5 Wt.% PTFE + 0.8 Wt.% h-BN concentrations significantly improved the tribological characteristics when compared to the base Jatropha oil. The application of formulations yielded percentage reduction of 8.67%, 10.98%, 7.34% and 7.35%, respectively, for 0.5% poly + 0.5% h-BN, 0.5% poly + 0.6% h-BN, 0.5% poly + 0.7% h-BN, 0.5% poly + 0.8% h-BN against base Jatropha oil under 20 N. Originality/value The formulation of PTFE and h-BN for electric transmission with wear and friction effects was accomplished in this paper. The mechanism of particle diffusing at the sliding contact on tribological behavior could be examined based on the created model of operation. Peer review The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ILT-07-2023-0235/