OSU research studies if vegetable oils can be transformed into advanced coatings

Tuesday, August 18, 2026

Media Contact: Tanner Holubar | Communications Specialist | 405-744-2065 | tanner.holubar@okstate.edu

Could plant-based oils be used as building blocks for some of the world's most advanced materials?

Researchers in the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology at Oklahoma State University are working to transform renewable vegetable oils into advanced protective coatings. This could reduce energy use, lower manufacturing costs and improve the sustainability of materials used in a range of industries.

Dr. Pranjal Nautiyal, assistant professor in the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and Dr. Ritesh Sachan, associate professor in MAE, are collaborating on a research project titled "Vegetable Oils as Sustainable Feedstock for Mechanocatalytic Fabrication of Diamond-like Carbon Films."

Their research looks to discover how vegetable oils can be converted into diamond-like carbon films using an emerging manufacturing approach known as mechanocatalysis.

Diamond-like carbon is a category of materials that combines the extreme hardness of diamonds and the low-friction properties of graphite. These characteristics make these materials highly desirable as anti-wear and anti-friction coatings for mechanical components. Diamond-like coatings help improve the longevity of components such as bearings and gears that operate under harsh mechanical and thermal conditions.

Rather than rely on petroleum-based feedstocks, the team will study whether renewable vegetable oils can serve as sustainable raw materials for producing these advanced coatings. Because vegetable oils are renewable, the approach could improve sustainability while reducing the technology's carbon footprint.

"We propose using vegetable oils as precursors to fabricate technologically important diamond-like carbon films," Nautiyal said. "By using mechanical forces to drive chemical reactions and leveraging the catalytic properties of high-entropy alloys, we hope to enable these reactions at much lower temperatures than conventional manufacturing."

Traditional chemical manufacturing typically relies on heat to drive reactions, which consumes a lot of energy. Mechanocatalysis uses mechanical forces in conjunction with catalytic surfaces to initiate chemical reactions, offering a potentially more energy-efficient pathway for producing advanced materials.

“High entropy alloys are an emerging class of next-generation materials with enormous potential,” Sachan said. “Some of the properties have been demonstrated but there is a vast space of properties which are not yet tapped. The catalytic properties of high entropy alloy surfaces that contribute to tribofilm formation represent one such largely unexplored area.”

Identifying effective catalysts and understanding how mechanical forces influence chemical reactions are the project's two largest scientific challenges.

"In mechanocatalytic fabrication, we use mechanical forces as the driving force for the chemical reaction," Nautiyal said. "In conjunction, a catalytic surface is used to augment and accelerate the reaction. This is a relatively new and less explored manufacturing approach. Conventional chemical manufacturing relies on heat as the driving force, making these processes energy-intensive. In this project, we propose using mechanical stresses to achieve such reactions at temperatures that are a fraction of conventional processes."

If successful, their approach could be a simpler, cheaper alternative to current coating technologies, such as chemical and physical vapor deposition. Beyond diamond-like carbon, the team believes the knowledge gained could be applied to other classes of materials, advancing more sustainable manufacturing techniques.

"Mechanocatalysis can also be a promising approach to designing new materials which currently do not exist," Nautiyal said. "Our long-term dream is to leverage mechanics and catalysis to make superior materials for a range of demanding applications, such as energy, aerospace and hypersonics."

This project offers CEAT students a major opportunity to gain experience in pulsed laser deposition to synthesize high-entropy alloy catalysts, atomic force microscopy to study mechanocatalytic reactions, and electron microscopy/spectroscopy to characterize the materials the team will make.

As the research progresses, Nautiyal and Sachan hope their work will demonstrate that more sustainable materials can also deliver the performance required for some of the world's most demanding applications.