Superlubricity achieved with mixtures of polyhydroxy alcohols and acids

In the present work, we show that the superlubricity can be achieved when the polyhydroxy alcohol solutions are mixed with acid solutions. The lowest friction coefficients between 0.003 and 0.006 are obtained on a traditional tribometer with a high pressure under the lubrication of these mixtures. Experimental results indicate that the superlubricity mechanism is in accordance with that under the lubrication of the mixture of glycerol and acid solutions in the study by Li et al. (Li , J. J.; Zhang, C. H.; Ma, L. R.; Liu, Y. H.; Luo, J. B. Superlubricity achieved with mixtures of acids and glycerol. Langmuir 2013, 29, 271-275). It is also found that the superlubricity is closely dependent upon the concentration of polyhydroxy alcohol and the number of hydroxyl groups in the molecular structure of polyhydroxy alcohol. However, the number of carbon atoms and the arrangement of hydroxyl groups in the molecular structure almost have no effect on superlubricity.