Liquid Crystals in Tribology

International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Francisco-José Carrión¹  Ginés Martínez-Nicolás¹  Patricia Iglesias¹  José Sanes¹ 

[1] id="af1-ijms-10-04102">Grupo de Ciencia de Materiales e Ingeniería Metalúrgica. Departamento de Ingeniería de Materiales y Fabricación. Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena. Campus de la Muralla del Mar. C/Doctor Fleming s/n. 30202-Cartagena, Spa

关键词: monomer liquid crystals;    lubrication;    tribology;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijms10094102

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Two decades ago, the literature dealing with the possible applications of low molar mass liquid crystals, also called monomer liquid crystals (MLCs), only included about 50 references. Today, thousands of papers, conference reports, books or book chapters and patents refer to the study and applications of MLCs as lubricants and lubricant additives and efforts are made to develop new commercial applications. The development of more efficient lubricants is of paramount technological and economic relevance as it is estimated that half the energy consumption is dissipated as friction. MLCs have shown their ability to form ordered boundary layers with good load-carrying capacity and to lower the friction coefficients, wear rates and contact temperature of sliding surfaces, thus contributing to increase the components service life and to save energy. This review includes the use of MLCs in lubrication, and dispersions of MLCs in conventional polymers (PDMLCs). Finally, new lubricating system composed of MLC blends with surfactants, ionic liquids or nanophases are considered.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2009 by the authors; licensee Molecular Diversity Preservation International, Basel, Switzerland.