Oil-Miscible and Non-Corrosive Phosphonium Ionic Liquids as Candidate Lubricant Additives

Journal Article · Sun Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 2012 · Wear

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wear.2012.04.015· OSTI ID:1045842

Yu, Bo ^[1]; Bansal, Dinesh G ^[1]; Qu, Jun ^[1]; Sun, Xiaoqi ^[1]; Luo, Huimin ^[1]; Dai, Sheng ^[1]; Blau, Peter Julian ^[1]; Bunting, Bruce G ^[1]; Mordukhovich, Gregory ^[2]; Smolenski, Donald ^[2]

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1. ORNL
2. GM R&D and Planning, Warren, Michigan

Ionic liquids (ILs) have been receiving considerable attention from the lubricants industry as potential friction and wear-reducing additives, but their solubility in oils is an issue. Unlike most ionic liquids that are insoluble in non-polar hydrocarbon oils, this study reports phosphonium-based ILs (PP-ILs) that are fully miscible with both mineral oil-based and synthetic lubricants. Both the cation and anion in quaternary structures, long alkyl chains, and capability of pairing the cation and the anion via a H-O bond are hypothesized to improve the compatibility between ions and neutral oil molecules. The measured viscosities of the oil-IL blends agree well with the Refutas equation that is for solutions containing multiple components. High thermal stability and non-corrosiveness were observed for the PP-ILs. Effective friction reduction and anti-wear functionality have been demonstrated in tribological tests when adding 5 wt% of a PP-IL into a base oil, suggesting potential applications for using the oil-miscible PP-ILs as lubricant additives.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)
• Sponsoring Organization: EE USDOE - Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EE)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1045842
• Journal Information: Wear, Journal Name: Wear Vol. 289; ISSN 0043-1648; ISSN WEARAH
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
ADDITIVES
ANIONS
CATIONS
CHAINS
COMPATIBILITY
FRICTION
HYDROCARBONS
LUBRICANTS
MOLTEN SALTS
SOLUBILITY
STABILITY
SYNTHETIC MATERIALS