Investigation on anti-wear and corrosion-resistance behavior of steel-steel friction pair enhanced by ionic liquid additives under conductive conditions

Wear and corrosion are one of the main causes of material loss and equipment failure in mechanical equipment, especially under current-carrying friction conditions, which interact and exacerbate each other. Herein, a new ionic liquid additive (IL-16) was studied to simultaneously improve the anti-wear and anti-corrosion properties of steel-steel friction pair under conductive conditions. The coefficient of friction decreased by 58.8% at 1.6 wt% IL-16 content under the load current of 1.5 A, the wear was reduced 10 times, and the contact resistance was only 37 mΩ, owing to the IL-16 ionic liquids additive forming a stable physical adsorption film on the surface of the friction pair to hinder the transfer of charges and products related to the corrosion reaction.