Nanoscale engineering of the contact interfaces for green lubrication technology
The project focuses on design of novel and innovative high-performance green boundary film contacts that satisfy strict requirements on greenhouse emissions and hazardous materials, indispensably required in all future heavy loaded lubricated mechanical components.
Current emission legislation already severely affects industrial and automotive sectors, while restrictions that further increase with high pace will require abandoning key lubricant additives in next few coming years. However, new lubrication technology is not yet available. If efficient solutions will not be introduced on time, this may result in machinery performance deterioration and cause immense technical and economic consequences. This urgent need for the replacement of current technology has clearly set the development of green, high-performance lubrication to the uppermost priority in the field of tribology-related machine design, surface engineering and lubricant chemistry.
In this project we innovatively design efficient green contact interfaces by combining tailored diamond-like carbon (DLC) coatings that possess very low-wear and low-friction properties, with harmless organic additives (alcohols, fatty acids). This new green concept, recently initiated in our group, is getting increased attention in academic and industrial research. To provide proof-of-concept for this project, we already possess supporting preliminary results, but further detailed evidence and understanding is indispensably missing for industrial implementation.