Ionic Liquid Lubrication

The U.S. Air Force requires advanced lubricants that will outperform state-of-the-art lubricants at elevated temperatures and under a high vacuum for a broad spectrum of military and aerospace applications. Additionally, the rapidly growing field of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) requires advanced lubricants for extremely low-torque moving parts that are incorporated into microscopic actuators. Based on the Phase I data collected by Covalent and by the University of Dayton Research Institute (UDRI), we have identified several ionic liquid materials that possess unprecedented thermochemical and tribological properties as base fluid lubricants. During Phase II these base fluid lubricants, along with a number of additional ionic liquid materials that belong to this class, will be prepared and purified by us. The UDRI, in concert with a domestic lubricants company, will evaluate Covalent’s new materials in respect to their thermal stabilities and anticorrosive properties, and most importantly, their tribological properties at the extremes of temperature under conditions of boundary and hydrodynamic lubrication.