Fullerenes in rotella T6?

This is a quote from the Shell site. Is this referring to fullerenes in there oil.
http://s03.static-shell.com/content...ts-services/lubricants/rotella/rotella-t6.pdf

Shell Rotella® T6 has special molecules that resist compression to keep moving parts separated, reducing wear. The antiwear booster provides extra protection against wear in highly stressed areas
of the engine.

EDIT
Buckminsterfullerene – A Review Covering The Discovery, Structure, Production, Properties and Applications of Buckyballs

http://www.azonano.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1641

Note I added this after JSWTDI09 posted.

Maybe "Bucky balls"? I actually seriously doubt that this is what they are talking about, just because of cost. There are other molecules out there that are nearly spherical that can do the same price for less money. However, I could be wrong. It is possible that they developed a cheaper way of making Bucky Balls (or "Fullerene"). I wish they gave more information instead of just saying "special molecules". It leaves us stuck with using our imagination to guess what they mean.

Have Fun!

Don

sound like Bucky balls to me

I stole this from a 2004 theses on the subject. Exon and Shell had some patents in the early 90's but they did not discribe it as a boundry lubricant.

If you compare the 2004 thesis discription it and Shells wording of T6. Sure sound like Bucky balls to me, since, Anti-wear additives are chemical and react under temp. and pressure with the surface metal to create a layered protective coating but fullerenes( see quote).

Most antiwear additives contain sulfur, chlorine, phosphorus, boron or their
combinations. Molybdenum disulfide and graphite are common examples that are generally used in greases, some industrial oils and various break-in lubricants.

In general, antiwear agents are commonly used in engine and gear oils, automatic transmission fluids, power steering fluids and tractor hydraulic fluids.

Properties that may make fullerenes successful antiwear additives are spheroid shape, high elasticity and high load carrying capacity of their molecules.

Different from the lubrication mechanism of widely accepted antiwear additives, fullerenes are expected to act as minute firm balls, which cannot be easily squeezed out from the contact.

Due to fullerene chemical stability, they do not react with metal surface, but fill the surface[FONT="] asperities reducing friction and surface wear. [/FONT]

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EDIT UPDATE
Here is a quote from shells patent. Note the use of fullerenes to develope the very stable star polymer that I am pretty certain Rotella T6 uses.( from my earlier research of T6 I found a paper that mentions shell was using a very stable star polymer)

The polysubstituted fullerenes are particularly useful as cross-linking agents in polymers and/or as core building blocks of star polymers. Indeed, the polysubstituted fullerene molecules, with hydroxy or amino groups as the major components of substitutions, provide a unique three-dimensional multi-functional precursor suitable for utilization as polymer cross-linking agents and core building blocks of star polymers. Fully converted fullerenes, such as polyhydroxylated fullerenes, poly(amino) fullerenes, and poly(aminohydroxy) fullerenes, give a maximum number, about 10 to 15, of polymer arms on the fullerene molecules. Partially substituted fullerenes, such as poly(amino-hydroxyacetoxy) fullerenes, poly(aminohydroxytrifluoroacetoxy) fullerenes, poly(nitrohydroxy) fullerenes, and poly(aminoacetamino) fullerenes, can be used to produce a lesser number of polymer arms, about 3-10, on the fullerene molecule.

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JSWTDI09 said:

Maybe "Bucky balls"? I actually seriously doubt that this is what they are talking about, just because of cost. There are other molecules out there that are nearly spherical that can do the same price for less money. However, I could be wrong. It is possible that they developed a cheaper way of making Bucky Balls (or "Fullerene"). I wish they gave more information instead of just saying "special molecules". It leaves us stuck with using our imagination to guess what they mean.

Have Fun!

Don

Click to expand...

I agree it dosn't seem possible that shell could have developed and cornered the market on Buckey balls. Looking at the picture provided at
http://s03.static-shell.com/content...ts-services/lubricants/rotella/rotella-t6.pdf
it would seem that the molecules are being compressed which would not be possible since C60 is diamond hard and the mechanism is rolling in place to reduce friction.

More than likely Shell is using some type of( super) lubricity additive.

It does seem somebody is claiming to have the US patent rights that will eliminate lubrication as we know it; he claims in the near future. He is using water glycol mix as one method to disperse a special quasi spherical Bucky Ball that separates asperity contact.

Nanospacer lubrication
WO 2012029191 A1
Abstract
One of the urgent environmental problems is to find replacements for lubrication oil, the last necessary evil, which is known to have one fatal defect of its thin film breaking up so readily under boundary condition. While solid lubricants are being increasingly used as the substitutes for oil, the formers generally have higher friction coefficients and cost more than the latter. It is desirable to find a fluid lubrication system that never allows clashing of interacting surfaces. Here we show that dilute colloidal solutions of single-nano diamond particles in water and a few organic solvents display surprisingly low friction coefficients. The results are interpreted in terms of high number density of single-nano particles in its colloidal solution, which allows for them to act as ubiquitous spacers whenever boundary condition appears. Single-nano diamond crystals have all the other requirements for this purpose. It is likely that we can finally get rid of oil which persisted too long as the only lubrication fluid.

Here is the link if your up for it.
http://www.google.com/patents/WO201...a=X&ei=U9wCUp78F4KuqgGr7oCIDA&ved=0CEkQ6AEwAw

Edit: this is a patent application and has only been published 2012 I guess it is not a patent officially but it does look advanced if all claims are workable.

James & Son said:

More than likely Shell is using some type of( super) lubricity additive.

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Solid lubricants (essentially molecular ball bearings) are a growing field in materials science. There are actually a number of chemical compounds with nearly spherical molecules. Molybdenum disulphide is a common one, but Tungsten disulphide is even more spherical and I'm sure that there are others I'm not aware of. I'm not crazy about their talk of diamond crystals. Carbon, yes, but crystals are rarely spherical. Would a "Bucky Ball" be considered a crystal? I'm not an expert in this field.

Have Fun!

Don