Novel surfactants and their application as universal lubricity aids

Abstract

The reduction in friction is a desired property in many industries. Some of the applications include the movement of liquid or slurry through a pipeline in oil or mining, the grinding of one metal on another during fabrication, metal on paper in the making of nearly any paper product, to even something closer to home with the movement of a brush or comb through one's hair. Friction yields higher degrees of strain or stress on one or both of the substrates. This can be costly due to energy requirements, wear of equipment, or even breakage of the substrate. Even though the need exists in so many industries, the mechanisms of lubricity vary enough in each that there really is not a universal lubricity aid that can successfully be applied across the different industries. A family of novel lubricity aids based on alkyl polyglucosides have been synthesized and evaluated in the lab on both metal/metal friction reduction as well as comb/hair friction reduction. One of the modified alkyl polyglucosides has yielded excellent reduction in friction in both applications.