A Supramolecular Gel to Reduce Tool Wear and Protect Surfaces during Metalworking

Abstract

Metalworking includes creating tiny designer parts, fitting of the parts and assemblies to large scale structures by forming, cutting, and joining. The processes produce lots of dust, pollutants, noise and heat. A metalworking supramolecular gel has been developed to improve workpiece quality, to reduce tool wear and protect newly cut metal surface. An efficient NDI-based gelator for silicon oil has been synthesized and investigated. From X-ray single crystal studies, the dodecyl groups adopt all anti conformation on both side of the diimide and the compound self-assembled to form supramolecular sheet-like structure. The compound successfully imbololized silicon oil and formed a soft gel at 4 wt% (w/v). From mechanical response, storage modulus (G') was greater than loss modulus (G") and did not cross each other over the entire range of angular frequency, which indicates that the gel is elastic in nature. The FE-SEM images showed that the gel is made of entangled fibers. Further the gel was used during metal cutting and grinding to reduce tool wear, and was found to prevent the sparking, absorb the dust and finally release the silicon oil to protect newly cut metal surface.[a] S.