Friction Reduction of Lubricant Base Oil by Micelles and Crosslinked Micelles of Block Copolymers

A review of recent developments of friction modifiers for liquid lubricants (2007–present)

“…Such particles showed a unique friction reduction of base oil by >70% in the boundary lubrication regime, which were better than the widely used industrial additive GMO. The performance of these particles were affected by the core size of the particles, the amount of acrylic acid groups on the particle surfaces, the degree of the core crosslinking, and the relative core and coronal sizes of the particles [188].…”

The internal structure of poly(methyl methacrylate) latexes in nonpolar solvents

“…The significance of such dispersions can be appreciated by considering the many various industrial sectors that make use of them, which include petrochemicals [13], lubricants [7,14,15], reprography [4,5], inkjet printing [5], magnetic recording media [4], rheological fluids [16,17], and electronic displays [18][19][20][21]. Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) latexes, originally developed through an industrial-academic collaboration between the University of Bristol and ICI [22,23], have proved an essential tool for colloid scientists to develop new technologies and study fundamental interactions in nonpolar media.…”

Self-assembly and chemical processing of block copolymers: a roadmap towards a diverse array of block copolymer nanostructures

“…This combination of synthetic, self-assembly, and processing strategies leads to a diverse range of block copolymer nanostructures, including microspheres [35,50,51], nanospheres [52,53], bumpy spheres [54,55], vesicles [56,57], tadpoles [58][59][60], macrocycles [61], nanofibers [62,63], nanotubes [64,65], thin films containing nanochannels [66][67][68][69], miktoarm copolymers [70], helices [71][72][73], crosslinked polymer brushes [74], and Janus particles [75]. These structures also have a variety of potential applications, such as drug delivery [76], separations [77,78], assay systems [51,55], as catalysts [79], materials for superamphiphobic surfaces [80,81], and improved friction reduction among lubricating oils [82,83].…”

“…Recently Liu et al [83] prepared spherical micelles and nanospheres of the diblock copolymer poly[(2-ethylhexyl acrylate)-ran-(tert-butyl acrylate)]-block-poly(2-hydroxyethyl acrylate) (P(EXA-r-tBA)-b-PHEA) and various derivatives, which have improved friction reduction properties in an industrial base oil (Exxon Mobile EHC-45). To prepare most of these derivatives, the PHEA block was reacted with cinnamoyl chloride, thus replacing the PHEA units with crosslinkable poly(2-cinnamoyloxyethyl acrylate) (PCEA) units.…”

“…In this image, a lightly crosslinked particle is shown to undergo shape deformation, while retaining its structure. This particle reduces friction between the two metal surfaces by preventing their uneven protrusions from contacting each other [83]. Reprinted with permission from Ref.…”