| Abstract |
Ionic liquids (ILs) have been recently considered as potentially adequate lubricants for microelectromechanical and nanoelectromechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS) due to the specific features of these silicon based miniaturized devices. Aiming at the optimization of the lubrication of MEMS/NEMS, new ILs resulting from the combination of sulfur-containing anions (bis(2-ethyl-1-hexyl) sulfosuccinate, [AOT], and ethylsulphate, [C2SO4]) with ammonium, imidazolium or methylpyridinium based cations were prepared. Their tribological performance against silicon and steel was assessed with a nanotribometer and pared to that of other ILs based on the cation 1-ethyl 3-methylimidazolium, [C2MIM]. Our results reveal that the presence of the anion [C2SO4] is responsible for very low friction coefficients on silicon, meaning that these ILs may be considered as promising lubricants for MEMS/NEMS. In contrast, the anion [AOT] did not lead to efficient lubricants for this type of systems. The results obtained on steel were not so impressive, although all the ILs based on [C2SO4] presented better lubricant capacities than commercial oil. |
