Inorganic fullerene-like material as additive to lubricants

In analogy to graphite , nanoparticles of inorganic compounds with lamellar twodimensional structures such as metal dichalcogenides for example WS2 , are not stable against folding and can adopt nanotubular and fullerene-like structures , nicknamed inorganic fullerenes or IF .The analogy can be extended to similar nanostructures , like nanotubes or NT .Various applications for such nanomaterials were proposed . For example, IF-WS2 nanoparticles were shown to have beneficial effects as solid lubricants or additive to lubricants and as part of tribological surfaces . Other proposed applications include nanocomposites , ultra strong tips for scanning probe microscopy , Li-batteries , car aerospace , semi conductors and electrochemical hydrogen storage . In this paper, the preparation of WS2 nanoparticles has been investigated.