I-Corps Teams: Compression and friction properties of lubricants in boundary lubrication

这个i-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是为工业润滑油公司或汽车润滑油公司提供更好的理解和新润滑油产品的设计策略，特别是对于高负荷、超薄膜润滑油。据预测，有三个主要经济领域与摩擦学和润滑工程有关--能源、制造和运输。这三个领域都遵循着提高效率的趋势，其中润滑油或新的润滑油配方是以最低成本提供商品的激烈竞争中的关键组成部分。这种市场压力将继续创造对能够提高制造作业效率的新机械和新型润滑油的需求。该项目搭建了一座桥梁，将计算实验室的研究成果与真实的工业世界联系起来。润滑油产品的商业重要性是在许多部门和新的使能技术方面节省了大量能源和成本。该项目还为学生提供了一个独特的机会，让他们在现实世界中实践计算纳米摩擦学和研究商业化培训，造福于润滑油行业、环境和社会。这个i-Corps项目使用核心技术和计算分子模拟的创新来理解和设计新的润滑油产品。目标是在高负荷下使用不同粘度改进剂的合成基础油。该项目通过与潜在的客户润滑油公司合作，探索模拟技术的商业机会。到目前为止，基础油在边界润滑中的纳米力学行为还不是很清楚。该项目主要研究有/没有添加剂的真实润滑油的原子尺度摩擦行为，并开发新的计算模型，以提供对边界润滑中润滑油在压缩和剪切作用下的原子行为的独特见解。通过与潜在行业客户的合作，计算分子模拟揭示了极端边界润滑条件下润滑剂-表面的基本相互作用。该项目在满足当前客户需求的同时，为摩擦学和润滑工程的发展开辟了新的前沿。此外，该奖项还具有商业化潜力，可以吸引工业合作伙伴为工业和汽车润滑油公司开发下一代润滑油。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 I-Corps project is to provide industrial lubricant companies or automotive lubricant companies with a better understanding and a design strategy for new lubricant products, especially for high-loading, ultra-thin film lubrications. It has been predicted that three major economic areas are related to tribology and lubrication engineering -- energy, manufacturing and transportation. These three areas all follow a trend towards increasing the efficiency, in which lubricants or new lubricant formulations are a critical component in an intense competition to provide goods at the lowest costs. This market pressure will continue to create a demand for new machinery and new type of lubricants that can improve the efficiency of manufacturing operations. The project builds a bridge that connects research findings in the computational lab to the real industrial world. Commercial importance for the lubricant products is a significant energy and cost savings in many sectors and new enabling technologies. The project also provides a unique opportunity for students to practice computational nano-tribology and research commercialization training in the real world, benefiting the lubricant industry, environment, and society. This I-Corps project uses core technology and innovation of computational molecular simulations to understand and design new lubricant products. Synthetic base oils with different viscosity modifiers under high loadings are targeted. The project explores the commercial opportunity of simulation technology through collaboration with potential customer lubricant companies. So far the nanoscale mechanical behaviors of base oils in boundary lubrication are still not well understood. This project focuses on atomic-scale friction behavior of realistic lubricant oils with/without additives and develops new computational models to provide unique insights into the atomistic behaviors of lubricants under compression and shear in boundary lubrication. Through collaboration with potential industry customers, computational molecular simulations reveal the fundamental lubricant-surface interactions under extreme boundary lubrication conditions. This project creates a new frontier for the advancement in tribology and lubrication engineering while meeting current customer needs. In addition, there is a commercialization potential to attract industrial partners to develop the next-generation lubricants for industrial and automotive lubricant companies.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.