Liquid crystals in tribology

Two decades ago, the literature dealing with the possible applications of low molar mass liquid crystals, also called monomer liquid crystals (MLCs), only included about 50 references. Today, thousands of papers, conference reports, books or book chapters and patents refer to the study and applicati...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:International Journal of Molecular Sciences 2009-09, Vol.10 (9), p.4102-4115
Main Authors: Carrión, Francisco-José, Martínez-Nicolás, Ginés, Iglesias, Patricia, Sanes, José, Bermúdez, María-Dolores
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Ionic Liquids - chemistry
Liquid Crystals - chemistry
Lubricants - chemistry
lubrication
monomer liquid crystals
Phase Transition
Review
Surface-Active Agents - chemistry
tribology
Viscosity
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Two decades ago, the literature dealing with the possible applications of low molar mass liquid crystals, also called monomer liquid crystals (MLCs), only included about 50 references. Today, thousands of papers, conference reports, books or book chapters and patents refer to the study and applications of MLCs as lubricants and lubricant additives and efforts are made to develop new commercial applications. The development of more efficient lubricants is of paramount technological and economic relevance as it is estimated that half the energy consumption is dissipated as friction. MLCs have shown their ability to form ordered boundary layers with good load-carrying capacity and to lower the friction coefficients, wear rates and contact temperature of sliding surfaces, thus contributing to increase the components service life and to save energy. This review includes the use of MLCs in lubrication, and dispersions of MLCs in conventional polymers (PDMLCs). Finally, new lubricating system composed of MLC blends with surfactants, ionic liquids or nanophases are considered.
ISSN:1422-0067
1661-6596
1422-0067
DOI:10.3390/ijms10094102