PFI-TT: Novel ionic liquid lubricant for next-generation information storage technology

这一创新-技术转化伙伴关系(PFI-TT)项目的广泛影响/商业潜力是双重的。首先，开发的新型离子液体润滑剂将提高硬盘驱动器(HDD)的可靠性和面密度，这将对使用电子设备和消费设备进行信息存储的众多应用产生重大影响。其次，拟议的研究将培养具有工程培训和创业思维和技能的下一代工程师。这些学生，特别是女性和代表不足的少数族裔(URM)学生，将参加创业培训，为他们提供关于小企业发展的深入知识，并为他们未来的创业生涯做好准备。拟议的项目旨在缩小技术差距，将一种新型离子液体润滑剂推向市场。在新一代硬盘技术--热辅助磁记录技术中，介质润滑剂需要具有高的热稳定性和高的飞隙。然而，最先进的润滑剂，即全氟聚醚(PFPE)，热稳定性不够好，苍蝇间隙低。在初步研究中，开发了一种新型离子液体润滑剂，工业试验表明，它具有所需的高热稳定性和苍蝇清净度。在拟议的研究中，计划：(1)通过优化反应时间和温度，将反应收率提高到~80%；(2)通过一种新的膜辅助同时反应分离工艺，将合成放大到~20倍；(3)进行驱动级工业测试，以全面鉴定离子液体润滑剂。这一建议的新颖性在于以下两个方面。首先，膜辅助的同时反应分离使大批量生产的效率大大提高。其次，驱动级行业测试预计将充分展示离子液体润滑剂相对于最先进的PFPE润滑剂的优势，这将极大地推动HDD技术的发展。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation - Technology Translation (PFI-TT) project are two-folds. First, the novel ionic liquid lubricant developed will improve the reliability and areal density of Hard Disc Drives (HDDs), which has great impact in numerous applications involving information storage using electronic and consumer devices. Second, the proposed research will educate the next-generation of engineers with both engineering training and entrepreneurial mindsets and skills. The students, particularly female and underrepresented minority (URM) students, will take the entrepreneurial training, which provides them the in-depth knowledge on small business development and prepares them for future careers in entrepreneurship.The proposed project aims to close the technical gap to bring a novel ionic liquid lubricant to the market. In Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR), which is the next-generation HDD technology, media lubricant needs to have high thermal stability and high fly clearance. However, the state-of-the-art lubricant, i.e., perfluoropolyether (PFPE), is not thermally stable enough and has low fly clearance. In preliminary research, a novel ionic liquid lubricant has been developed and industrial tests showed it has the desired high thermal stability and fly clearance. In the proposed research, the plan is to: (1) improve the reaction yield to ~80% by optimizing the reaction time and temperature; (2) scale up the synthesis by ~20 times via a novel membrane-aided simultaneous reaction-separation process; and (3) conduct drive-level industry testing to fully qualify the ionic liquid lubricant. The novelty of the proposal lies on the following two aspects. First, the membrane-aided simultaneous reaction-separation makes large-volume production much more efficient. Second, the drive-level industry testing is expected to fully demonstrate the advantages of the ionic liquid lubricant with respect to the state-of-the-art PFPE lubricant, which will greatly advance the HDD technology.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.