Highly conductive ionic liquids toward high-performance space-lubricating greases

Although ionic liquids (ILs) as a class of promising materials have a wide range of applications due to the excellent properties, their potential as space lubricants has been not systematically explored. Here two kinds of conductive alkyl imidazolium ILs greases were prepared using 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate (LB106) and 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl) amide (L-F106) as base oil and the polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) as thickener, with multiple-alkylated cyclopentane grease (MACs) as a comparison. Their chemical composition and tribological properties were investigated in detail under simulated space environment which is composed of high vacuum, high temperature and irradiation. Results show that the high conductive ILs greases not only possess good adaptive abilities to space environment and thermal stability but also provide excellent friction reducing and antiwear behaviors as well as high load carrying capacities. The unique physicochemical properties are attributed to a combination of special anions and cations, the excellent tribological properties are strongly dependent on a boundary protective film on the rubbing surfaces.