Titanium and its alloys have wide applications in industry due to their high strength-to-weight ratio and high melting point. An oxidized titania layer is typically present on the titanium surface which prevents the bulk titanium from further corroding and oxidizing. However, the titania surface on top of the bulk titanium is prone to high friction and wear, and currently there are no suitable lubricants for titanium surfaces, which restricts their widespread use in moving parts. Conventional mineral oil based lubricants adhere weakly to titania, so they are easily squeezed out during sliding, leading to wear. In this work the lubrication of titania surfaces using a series of ionic liquid (IL)−hexadecane mixtures has been probed using nanoscale atomic force microscopy (AFM) and macroscale ball-ondisk tribometer measurements. The IL investigated is trihexyl- (tetradecyl)phosphonium bis(2,4,4-trimethylpentyl)phosphinate, which is miscible with hexadecane in all proportions. At both length scales, the pure IL is a much more effective lubricant than pure hexadecane. Surface wear and the tribofilm as a function of load and sliding distance are probed with high resolution.

Titania lubrication using oil-ionic liquid mixtures

255th National Meeting (2018)

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