The challenges of developing ionic liquids as tribological lubricants for thin film media

Ionic liquids (ILs) could be promising candidates for heat-assisted magnetic recording media due to their extraordinary properties such as considerably thinner monolayer (ML) thickness and extremely good thermal stability. In this paper, the physical properties and mechanism clearance of some novel fluorinated ILs were investigated through several analytical technologies including contact angle, FTIR, XPS, AFM, TGA and Candela OSA. Although the ML thickness of the ionic lubricants was confirmed only 50 - 60 % of that of conventional PFPEs, their evaporation performance as two-dimension lubricant nanofilm is significantly inferior to conventional PFPEs. In addition, the greater surface energy of ILs vs conventional PFPE lubricants, resulting in their poor mechanical clearance. The findings here reveal critical challenges in the developing of ionic lubricants for thin film magnetic media and may serve as guidance for the future design of ILs as media lubricants. (c) 2021 The Korean Society of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This paper explores the physical properties and mechanism clearance of novel fluorinated ILs, showing that while the ML thickness of ionic lubricants is thinner compared to conventional PFPEs, their evaporation performance as nanofilm lubricants is inferior, and their greater surface energy results in poor mechanical clearance. These findings highlight critical challenges in developing ILs for thin film magnetic media.