Abstract
Currently, macroscale liquid superlubricity remains limited to low applied loads and typical ceramic friction pairs. In this study, a robust macroscale superlubricity with a coefficient of friction (COF) of approximately 0.006 is realized at the bearing steel interface induced by protic ionic liquids (ILs) in propylene glycol aqueous solution, and the lubrication system exhibits excellent anti-corrosion properties. Results show that superlubricity can be achieved by employing ILs with longer alkyl chains over a wide load (< 350 N) and speed (> 700 r/min) range. By systematically investigating factors affecting superlubricity, including the IL structure, ionization degree, test conditions, polyol, water-to-alcohol ratio, and lubrication state, the superlubricity mechanism is discussed. Notably, a thicker and denser stern layer can be formed using ILs with longer alkyl chains, which participates in the tribochemical reaction with the metal substrate to form a tribofilm during rubbing. The hydrogen bond network layer formed by the hydrogen ion and polycol aqueous solution can withstand high applied loads. Water can be used to reduce the shear stress of polyols, and enable superlubricity to be achieved under high-speed rotations. Moreover, an inevitable running-in period serves as a dispersing contact stress and dynamically forms a lubricating film, where the lubrication state locates mixed lubrication and then transforms into boundary lubrication as the roughness of the contact surface increases. This study is expected to significantly promote the development and application of superlubricity in the engineering field.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Youth Innovation Promotion Association of Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. 2021422).
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Dapeng FENG. He received his Ph.D. degree in physical chemistry in 2001 from the Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China. He is a professor at the State Key Lab of Solid Lubrication in the Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, CAS. He has authored or co-authored more than 80 journal papers. His research interests are high performance lubricating oil, grease, and additives. He has gained a number of awards including “Second prize of National Technical Invention” and “Technology Invention Award of Gansu Province”.
Dan QIAO. She received her Ph.D. degree in material science in 2014 from the Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, CAS, China. She is an associate professor at the State Key Laboratory of Solid Lubrication in the Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, CAS, China. She has authored or co-authored more than 30 journal papers. Her research interests are ionic liquids lubricants and tribology chemistry.
Zhiwen ZHENG. He received his B.S. degree in 2016 from the China University of Mining and Technology (in Xuzhou, China). He got his M.S. degree in 2019 from the Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, CAS, China. Now, he is a Ph.D. candidate in the Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, CAS, China. His current scientific interests are devoted to macroscale liquid superlubricity and novel lubricating additives.
Xiaolong LIU. He received his M.S. degree in 2019 from the Shandong Normal University, China. Now, he is an intermediate engineer in the Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, CAS, China. His scientific interests mainly focus on the design, preparation, and tribo-chemistry of high-performance lubricant.
Hongxiang YU. He received his B.S. degree in 2018 from the Shandong Normal University, China. Now, he is a Ph.D. candidate at the Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, CAS, China. His current scientific interests are devoted to mechanism and kinetic analysis of tribochemical reaction of lubricants, as well as novel lubricant additives.
Haijie CHEN. She received her B.S. degree in 2017 from the Shandong Normal University, China. Then, she entered the Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, CAS, China, for a postgraduate and doctoral program. Now, she is a Ph.D candidate. Her ongoing research focuses on assembly lubrication film of 2D materials.
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Zheng, Z., Liu, X., Yu, H. et al. Insight into macroscale superlubricity of polyol aqueous solution induced by protic ionic liquid. Friction 10, 2000–2017 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40544-021-0563-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40544-021-0563-8