Collaborative Research: Understanding the Lubrication Mechanisms of Environmentally-Compatible Protic Ionic Liquids

合作研究：了解环境相容的质子离子液体的润滑机制

• 批准号: 2246864
• 负责人: Patricia Iglesias
• 金额: $ 27.6万
• 依托单位: Rochester Institute of Tech
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-08-01 至 2026-07-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2246864&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Understanding; Lubrication; Mechanisms

There is growing demand for engineering systems and functional materials with improved energy efficiency and longer lifetime through improved friction, wear, and lubrication performance, also known as tribological performance. This demand is driven by economic and societal needs such as minimizing greenhouse gas emissions, ensuring energy security, and improving industrial output and competitiveness. Ionic liquids (ILs) are molten salts with tunable composition and melting points below 100ºC. Their physical and chemical properties make them promising lubricating fluids. However, the high cost and corrosiveness of common ILs combined with a poor understanding of the relationship between IL molecular structure and lubrication performance has limited large-scale utilization of ILs in tribological applications. A class of low-cost, eco-friendly, non-corrosive protic ionic liquids (PILs) called choline amino acid PILs has emerged as a possible alternative to these common ILs. This project seeks to understand how PIL molecular structures affect their arrangement and reaction at solid sliding interfaces. The project will also leverage the complementary expertise and resources of the principal investigators at the University of Texas-Austin (UT-Austin) and Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) to enhance the quality, size, and diversity of the US engineering workforce through training and education opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students from diverse backgrounds and underrepresented groups in STEM.The research project will identify links between the molecular structure of choline amino acid PILs – a class of halogen-free, eco-friendly PILs – and their functional performance (i.e., nanoscale and macroscale lubricating behavior). The research will also examine how the functional behavior emerges from the interfacial processes occurring at solid/PILs interfaces in response to spatial confinement and applied normal pressure and shear forces. The working hypothesis is that multiple interfacial processes, including surface adsorption, interfacial phase transformation, and shear-induced mechano-chemical reaction, underpin the promising lubricating properties of choline amino acid PILs; in addition, the kinetics of these processes can be controlled by tailoring the molecular structure of the ions (e.g., length of the alkyl chains). The team’s complementary expertise and instrumentation will be applied to synthesize PILs with systematically-varied structures. These PILs will be employed in nanoscale and macroscale tribological experiments to test the working hypothesis. The project outcomes will inform the design of novel ILs with improved and task-specific tribological properties.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

通过改善摩擦、磨损和润滑性能（也称为摩擦学性能）来提高能源效率和延长使用寿命的工程系统和功能材料的需求不断增长。这一需求是由经济和社会需求驱动的，例如最大限度地减少温室气体排放、确保能源安全以及提高工业产出和竞争力。离子液体 (IL) 是成分可调且熔点低于 100°C 的熔盐。它们的物理和化学特性使它们成为有前途的润滑液。然而，普通离子液体的高成本和腐蚀性，加上对液体液体分子结构和润滑性能之间关系的了解不足，限制了液体液体在摩擦学应用中的大规模使用。一类低成本、环保、无腐蚀性的质子离子液体 (PIL)（称为胆碱氨基酸 PIL）已成为这些常见 IL 的可能替代品。该项目旨在了解 PIL 分子结构如何影响它们在固体滑动界面的排列和反应。该项目还将利用德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校 (UT-Austin) 和罗彻斯特理工学院 (RIT) 主要研究人员的互补专业知识和资源，通过为 STEM 领域不同背景和代表性不足群体的本科生和研究生提供培训和教育机会，提高美国工程劳动力的质量、规模和多样性。该研究项目将确定胆碱氨基酸 PIL 分子结构之间的联系 – 一类无卤素、环保的 PIL – 及其功能性能（即纳米级和宏观级润滑行为）。该研究还将研究固体/PIL 界面处发生的界面过程如何响应空间限制以及施加的法向压力和剪切力，从而研究功能行为如何出现。工作假设是，多种界面过程，包括表面吸附、界面相变和剪切诱导的机械化学反应，支撑了胆碱氨基酸 PIL 的有前途的润滑特性；此外，这些过程的动力学可以通过调整离子的分子结构（例如烷基链的长度）来控制。该团队的互补专业知识和仪器将用于合成具有系统变化结构的 PIL。这些 PIL 将用于纳米级和宏观摩擦学实验，以测试工作假设。该项目成果将为设计具有改进的特定任务摩擦学特性的新型 IL 提供信息。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优点和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。