ABSTRACT
The demand for biodegradable lubricants is the result of a growing concern for the impact of our technology on the environment. This chapter addresses the lubricating properties and performance of vegetable oils, that is, the triglycerides directly obtained from the plant and the fatty acids directly obtained from the triglycerides. Natural oils are predominantly triacyl glycerols, commonly called triglycerides. The addition of nanoparticles to conventional lubricant was also reported for the study of tribological properties of vegetable-based lubricants. Biodegradability is an important characteristic for the majority of chemical industry products and it represents a way of measuring the risk level of decomposition presented by these products when deployed to the environment. The lubricant industry is in a constant state of change. Lubricants are continuously being developed with better properties for specific applications and at the same time some lubricant formulations are finding wider application than that for which they might have been originally designed.
