Most lubricants are liquids, but beyond the liquid realm - at high or low temperature, or in a vacuum - solid lubricants are needed. Conventional solid lubricants are also limited in their range of operation, but a new generation of solid lubricants may be with us. Hollow nanoparticles of tungsten sulphide (similar to carbon fullerenes and nanotubes) have now been synthesized, and they are more slippery and more robust than other materials. Instead of slipping between weakly bonded crystal planes, these nanoparticles may lubricate by rolling.
- Somuri Prasad
- Jeffrey Zabinski