Ionic Lubricants incorporating nanomaterials.

Ionic liquids could be an important component in green engineering. They are salts that are liquid at ambient temperature, and they possess attractive features as green lubricants such as very low vapor pressure and non-flammability. In contrast to many conventional solvents, ionic liquids produce virtually no hazardous or flammable vapors. NanoTechLabs Inc. and Wake Forest University will synthesize and evaluate ionic liquid / carbon nanotube based lubricants using unique cations based on chiral imidazoliums as a basis for the lubricant. The presence of chiral centers in the alkyl substituents in combination with chiral anions in a salt will provide a mixture of diastereomers depressing the melting point of the salt further and preventing crystallization. Single wall nanotubes will be incorporated into the ionic lubricants to impart lower friction coefficients and enhanced thermal stability. It is anticipated that carbon nanotubes will affect the molecular ordering of the lubricant, and the amount of induced long-range orientation will be characterized as a function of the nanotube length and dispersion.