Study on the Characteristics of Transferred Lubricating Thin Films on Ceramic Surfaces Generated in Liquid Nitrogen

Progresses on cryo-tribology: lubrication mechanisms, detection methods and applications

“…With the development and innovation of high-tech fields, including the military [3], aviation [4,5], aerospace [6][7][8][9], and superconducting and energy industries [2,10,11], demand is increasing for the operation of more advanced equipment at low (<273.15 K) and cryogenic (<120 K) temperatures, e.g. in cryogenic wind tunnels, space infrared telescopes, and cryogenic liquid rockets, as shown in figure 1.…”

“…Furthermore, our research clarified the influence of low temperature on the transfer film formation of polymeric materials under macro [5,50] and micro [51,52] dimensions. Researchers of aerospace agencies in Japan [53][54][55][56], Ecole Centrale de Lyon and the Université de Lyon in France [57,58], the University of Alaska Fairbanks in the U.S.A [59,60], Harbin Institute of Technology [3,6,[61][62][63][64][65][66], Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences [67][68][69][70] have contributed to the development of tribology theory at low temperatures and the expansion of solid lubricants for low-temperature applications. Overall, theoretical tribology studies at low temperatures have gradually concentrated on atomic and molecular scales with coupling of mechanical, physical, and chemical processes, compared with macro and asperity scales previously, which mainly focus on mechanical and physical processes.…”

“…Summarizing and sorting out the existing tribological test technologies and inventing new methods and equipment for tribological studies at low temperatures are vital to promote the further development of cryogenic solid lubricants, as well as to reveal the nature of temperaturedependent friction. Meanwhile, tribological research at the application level, regarding plain bearings [2,5,[71][72][73] or roller bearings [6,9,[74][75][76], for example, is equally important compared with theoretical research on solid lubricants at low temperatures, to clarify the relationship between lubricants, structural thermal deformation, and internal stress under real working conditions for complex tribological components applied in cryogenic devices. The progress of these studies is also inseparable from test technology and equipment to evaluate and verify the performance of tribological components such as bearings under service conditions, which is vital for realizing the application of solid lubricants at low temperatures.…”