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This paper aims to examine the friction and wear performance of the graphene synthesized from fruit cover plastic waste and oil palm fiber (OPF).

The graphene was synthesized by using a chemical vapor deposition method, where a copper sheet was used as the substrate. The dry sliding test was performed by using a micro ball-on-disc tribometer at various sliding speeds and applied loads.

The results show that both as-grown graphenes decrease the coefficient of friction significantly. Likewise, the wear rate is also lower at higher sliding speed and applied load. For this study, OPF is proposed as the best solid carbon source for synthesizing the graphene.

The main contribution of this study is opening a new perspective on the potentials of producing graphene from solid waste materials and its effect on the tribological performance.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ILT-11-2019-0486

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mechanisms of frictional wear stability of an activated carbon composite derived from palm kernel using phase transformation study.

The unlubricated sliding test was executed using a ball-on-disc tribometer at different loads with a constant speed, sliding distance and temperature.

Results of this paper suggest that stability of friction and wear of the test materials are primarily due to the phase transformation of the composite surface layer.

However, the effectiveness of the transfer layer as a medium for low friction and wear is only limited at certain applied loads.

This is the first study, to the authors’ knowledge, to find out the mechanisms of low frictional wear properties of an activated carbon composite derived from palm kernel using phase transformation study.

The purpose of this paper is to study the effect of hydrogen (H₂) gas on the graphene growth from fruit cover plastic waste (FCPW) and oil palm fibre (OPF), as a solid feedstock, towards the coefficient of friction (COF) properties.

Graphene film growth on copper (Cu) substrate was synthesised from FCPW and OPF, as a solid feedstock, using the chemical vapour deposition (CVD) method, at atmospheric pressure. The synthesised graphene was characterised using Raman spectroscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Electron Dispersed Spectroscopy (EDS). Surface hardness and roughness were measured using a nano-indenter and surface profilometer, respectively. Then, a dry sliding test was executed using a ball-on-disc tribometer at constant speed, sliding distance and load, with coated and uncoated copper sheet as the counter surface.

The presence of H₂ gas reduced the running-in time of the dry sliding test. However, there is no significant effect at the constant COF region, where the graphene growth from FCPW shows the lowest COF among other surfaces.

This paper is limited to graphene growth using the CVD method with selected parameters.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper on growing graphene from palm oil fiber via the CVD method and its subsequent analysis, based on friction coefficient properties.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of dimple size on the tribological performances of laser surface-textured palm kernel-activated carbon-epoxy (PKAC-E) composite.

A PKAC-E disc 74 mm in diameter was fabricated using the hot compression moulding technique. Five different types of surface contacts were prepared using a CO2 laser surface-texturing machine: a non-textured surface, and surfaces with dimples between 500 and 1,200 μm in diameter. The area density, contact ratio and depth were kept constant. A sliding test was carried out using a ball-on-disc tribometer under boundary lubricated conditions with constant sliding speed, sliding distance and applied load.

In general, the results showed that the friction coefficient decreased with an increasing dimple diameter of surface-textured PKAC-E composite. However, the appropriate dimple diameter for maintaining low friction coefficient is proposed in the range of 800 to 1,000 μm.

This is the first study, to the authors’ knowledge, to investigate the effects of dimple size, which is larger than 500 μm, on the tribological performances of laser surface-textured PKAC-E composite.

This study aims to scrutinise the impact of fibre length and its composition on the tribological attributes of oil palm fibre (OPF) polymeric composite as an alternative brake friction material.

Fabrication of the sample was conducted by using a hot-compression method. The tribological test was carried out by deploying a ball-on-disk tribometer. Analysis of the data was then done by using the Taguchi approach as well as analysis of variance.

The results indicated that all design variables (fibre composition, length and treatment) are not statistically significant, as all p-values are greater than 0.05. Remarkably, irrespective of the fibre treatment, the wear rate and coefficient of friction (COF) distribution suggested that a smaller fibre length with a high fibre composition might enhance the composite’s tribological performance with COF of 0.4 and wear rate below than 1 × 10^–9 mm³/Nm. The predominant wear mechanisms were identified as micro-cracks, fine grooves and fibre debonding.

In this study, all-inclusive scrutiny needs to be carried out for further exploration.

The main contribution and novelty of this study are opening a new perspective on the formulation of new substances from bio-based material (i.e. OPF) that possess superior tribological characteristics for friction-based applications.