Lubrication capabilities of amino acid based ionic liquids as green bio-lubricant additives

The present paper deals with study pertaining to the applicability of ionic liquids as additives for the new generation biodegradable polyol ester based bio-lubricant. The polyol ester has been synthesized by using polyol alcohol, dibasic acid and mono alcohol as end capping agent in the presence of p-toluene sulfonic acid as catalyst. The synthesized product has been evaluated for its physic-chemical properties such as kinematic viscosity, viscosity index, flash point and pour point. The synthesized ester was blended with aspartic acid and glutamic acid derived ionic liquids (ILs) to investigate the tribo-performance behavior. The anti-friction and anti-wear performance characteristics were thoroughly investigated by blending ionic liquids in the concentration of 2% by weight into the polyol ester base oil on a four-ball tribo-tester. The results indicate that the polyol ester-IL forms a compatible blend and results in reducing the friction and wear between the contacts. On the basis of study undertaken it is observed that the ILs have good potential to be used as additives for biodegradable lubricants.