title: Thermoreversible gel lubricants through universal supramolecular assembly of a nonionic surfactant in a variety of base lubricating liquids.
abstract: The present paper investigates a new type of thermoreversible gel lubricant obtained by supramolecular assembly of low-molecular-weight organic gelator (LMWG) in different base oils. The LMWG is a nonionic surfactant with polar headgroup and hydrophobic tail that can self-assemble through collective noncovalent intermolecular interactions (H-bonding, hydrophobic interaction) to form fibrous structures and trap base oils (mineral oils, synthetic oils, and water) in the as-formed cavities. The gel lubricants are fully thermoreversible upon heating-up and cooling down and exhibit thixotropic characteristics. This makes them semisolid lubricants, but they behave like oils. The tribological test results disclosed that the LMWG could also effectively reduce friction and wear of sliding pairs compared with base oils without gelator. It is expected that when being used in oil-lubricated components, such as gear, rolling bearing, and so on, gel lubricant may effectively avoid base oil leak and evaporation loss and so is a benefit to operation and lubrication failure for a long time.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Solid Lubrication, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Lanzhou 730000, China.
authors.forename: Qiangliang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Mingjin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.forename: Dongmei
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Zenghong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: Meirong
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Weimin
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Liu
keywords: gel lubricant; lubrication; supramolecular assembly; thermoreversible; wear