The Spanish Graphenea, along with Russian and Spanish collaborators, have shown that adding graphene to alumina improves the ceramic's wear resistance and decreases friction. The result is expected to soon find uses in real products, as graphene and its derivatives seem to be biocompatible and in addition carry a low cost.
Alunima (an oxide of aluminium) has been long in use in biomedical applications such as load-bearing hip prostheses and dental implants, due to its high resistance to corrosion, low friction, high wear resistance and strength. This recent study describes the dry sliding behavior of a graphene/alumina composite material and compares it to regular alumina. The wear rate of the advanced composite was 50% lower than that of pure alumina, while the friction coefficient was reduced by 10%. This finding is made even more astonishing by the fact that the concentration of graphene in the final product is only 0.22% by weight. The type of graphene used for the study is Graphenea's standard graphene oxide.
The experiment measured wear and friction by sliding the graphene/alumina composite material over a simulated distance of 10km. The material is slid in a tribometer, a machine that simulates sliding behavior by bouncing a ceramic ball off the tested material. The tribometer precisely measures the friction and wear as it goes. Such test instruments are often used to study novel hip implant designs. The testing of the material in this standard industrial tribometer puts the research close to end-user products.