Significantly Reducing Friction and Wear of Water-Based Fluids with Shear Thinning Bicomponent Supramolecular Hydrogels

The development of low-cost water-based products with environmentally friendly, flame-retardant, and excellent cooling performance is of immense scientific interest in lubrication. For this purpose, a series of water-based lubricant additives have been developed, but most of them lack practical application due to the problems of volatility and viscosity. Herein, a novel semisolid supramolecular hydrogel lubricating material of 2,4,6-triamino-1,3,5-triazin-1-ium diisopentyl phosphate is reported. The functionalized two-component gelator molecule can self-assemble through intermolecular interaction to form 3D network structure effectively traps the diethylene glycol or water-glycol, thereby improving its viscosity and reducing water's volatile. The hydrogel forms an effective protective film on the steel surface during the running-in process that endows unique characters of extreme-pressure and abrasion resistance behaviors. Therefore, the hydrogel always maintains a low coefficient of friction in the load (from 100 to 1200 N) and frequency (from 10 to 40 Hz, at 400 N) conversion tests. This allows to generate potential applications in the field of lubrication, especially as a high water-based lubricant applied in high load.