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When an automobile's engine is improperly lubricated, it can be a major hit to the pocketbook and the environment. For the average car, 15 percent of the fuel consumption is spent overcoming friction in the engine and transmission. When friction is high, gears have to work harder to move. This means the car burns more fuel and emits more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. "Every year, millions of tons of fuel are wasted because of friction," said Jiaxing Huang, associate professor of materials science and engineering at Northwestern University's McCormick School of Engineering. "It's a serious problem."While oil helps reduce this friction, people have long searched for additives that enhance oil's performance. Huang and his collaborators discovered that crumpled graphene balls are an extremely promising lubricant additive. In a series of tests, oil modified with crumpled graphene balls outperformed some commercial lubricants by 15 percent, both in terms of reducing friction and the degree of wear on steel surfaces.
You know what would also help? Banning ethanol as a gasoline additive. But Congress does not have the balls, graphene or otherwise, to do it.
