Alkylated naphthalenes as high-performance synthetic lubricating fluids

Alkylated naphthalene is a unique class of synthetic fluids with outstanding thermo-oxidative and hydrolytic stability, low volatility, and good solubility characteristics. This paper discusses the flexibility of this technology to achieve a balance of physical and chemical properties. In particular, fluid properties including thermo-oxidative stability, viscosity, aniline point, and volatility are related to chemical variations. Also, new elastohydrodynamic (EHD) film thickness and pressure-viscosity coefficient data show the good performance of this family of fluids as compared to synthetic esters.