Project Number: 3620-41000-155-02
Project Type: Nonfunded Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Jan 13, 2012
End Date: Dec 14, 2016

Objective:
The objective of this agreement is to conduct in depth understanding of the tribochemical reactions that occur during lubrication with biobased lubricants. Such investigation will allow for elucidating the reactants, the products, and the reaction mechanism occuring during a biolubrication process. Understanding of tribochemical reactions will allow for designing and synthesizing new biobased lubricant ingredients with superior oxidation stability, cold flow, and a number of tribological properties.

Approach:
Model biobased ingredients will be used in extreme pressure tribological investigations on a 4-ball tribometer. The wear surfaces from such investigation will be analyzed by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The analytical results will be used to construct hypothesis of potential reaction mechanisms at the tribological interface. The hypothesis will be refined further with additional carefully designed experiments.