DMREF: Development of Fundamental Design Rules for Material-Liquid-Nanoparticulate Interfaces that Optimize Control of Friction, Adhesion, and Wear

非技术性：这项工作汇集了化学，物理，工程和统计学，以开发一种由不同液体中的细小颗粒组成的新型润滑剂，这将改善传统润滑油的摩擦和磨损减少性能，同时显着减少其对环境的影响。摩擦、磨损和附着力的有效控制具有广泛的应用，影响能源效率、国家安全、制造业和环境。例如，典型柴油发动机中的总摩擦损失超过总燃料能量的10%。将损失减少到1%，仅在美国就可以节省大约10亿加仑的柴油。此外，今天的润滑剂是在一个专注于消除磨损而不是摩擦能量损失的时代开发的，并且没有考虑环境后果。这项工作还包括两个公众宣传活动，第一个是通过影子工作机会面向中学生，第二个是通过娱乐性公民科学学习模块面向公众。技术：将开发一种新的方法，用于开发优化控制摩擦，粘附和磨损的材料-液体-纳米颗粒界面的基本设计规则，将结合理论，模拟，统计，材料合成和表征。对这些特性的合理设计和有效控制将在许多领域产生变革性影响。这些研究将开拓新的领域，深入研究在宏观长度尺度上观察到的日常摩擦现象的量子和亚纳米起源。 该方法的动机是识别高度异质性的属性和对应于摩擦学性能的加工条件的组合之间的相关性的挑战。更具体地说，该项目结合了四个小组的协同努力：1）包括静电在内的界面现象的多物理模型; 2）预测多组分系统摩擦学性能的统计方法; 3）宏观和纳米尺度长度的摩擦和粘附的实验研究;以及（4）纳米结构材料的制造和化学功能化以及针对特定应用的分子光谱学。

NON-TECHNICAL:This effort brings together chemistry, physics, engineering and statistics to develop a new class of lubricants composed of exceedingly-fine particles in different liquids that will improve upon the friction and wear reduction properties of traditional oil lubricants while significantly reducing their environmental impact. Effective control of friction, wear and adhesion has a vast range of applications that impact energy efficiency, national security, manufacturing, and the environment. Total frictional losses in a typical diesel engine, for example, exceed 10% of the total fuel energy. Reducing the losses to 1% would save roughly a billion gallons of diesel fuel in the U.S. alone. Furthermore, today's lubricants were developed in an era that focused on wear elimination over energy losses from friction, and did not consider environmental consequences. This effort also includes two public outreach activities, the first of which targets middle school students through job shadow opportunities and the second of which targets the general public through an entertaining citizen science learning module.TECHNICAL:A new approach for developing fundamental design rules for material-liquid-nanoparticulate interfaces that optimize control of friction, adhesion and wear will be developed that combines theory, simulation, statistics, material synthesis and characterization. Rational design and effective control of these properties will be transformative across many fields. The studies will pioneer new ground, delving into the quantum and sub-nanoscale origins of everyday frictional phenomena observed at macroscopic length scales. The approach is motivated by the challenge of identifying correlations between combinations of highly heterogeneous properties and processing conditions that correspond to tribological performance. More specifically, the project combines synergetic efforts of four groups: 1) multi-physics modelling of interfacial phenomena including electrostatics; 2) statistical approaches for predicting tribological performance of multi-component systems; 3) experimental studies of friction and adhesion at both macroscopic and nanometer scale lengths; and (4) fabrication and chemical functionalization of nanostructured materials and molecular spectroscopy tailored to specific applications.