Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2017 Jan 22;10(1):91.
doi: 10.3390/ma10010091.

Self-Healing Materials for Ecotribology

Shih-Chen Shi  1 , Teng-Feng Huang  2
Affiliations

Self-Healing Materials for Ecotribology

Shih-Chen Shi et al. Materials (Basel). .

Abstract

Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) is a biopolymer that is biodegradable, environmentally friendly, and bio-friendly. Owing to its unique chemical structure, HPMC can reduce the coefficient of friction (COF) and frictional wear and thus possesses excellent lubrication properties. HPMC has good dissolvability in specific solvents. The present research focuses on the reversible dissolution reaction subsequent to the film formation of HPMC, with a view to the healing and lubrication properties of thin films. Raman spectroscopy was used to test the film-forming properties of HPMC and the dissolution characteristics of various solvents. In this study, the solvents were water, methanol, ethanol, and acetone. The results showed that the HPMC film had the highest dissolvability in water. The ball-on-disk wear test was used to analyze the lubrication properties of HPMC, and the results showed that HPMC had the same COF and lubrication properties as the original film after being subjected to the water healing treatment. The HPMC film can be reused, recycled, and refilled, making it an ideal lubricant for next-generation ecotribology.

Keywords: biopolymer; green tribology; hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC); lubrication; self-healing; sustainable manufacturing.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(a) Schematic illustration of experimental steps; 3D scanning image of hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) surface (b) with circular wear scar after the tribotest; (c) after healing treatment; (d) refill process and post-refill tribotest.
Figure 2
Figure 2
(a) Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image of a cross-section of HPMC film; energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) map of (b) carbon; (c) oxygen; (d) EDS analysis of a cross-section of HPMC film; (e) the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic (FTIR) analysis of cross-section of HPMC film.
Figure 3
Figure 3
For the thickness distribution of the HPMC films, the amounts of HPMC used were (a) 100 μL; (b) 125 μL; (c) 150 μL; (d) 175 μL; and (e) 200 μL; (f) Distribution of film thickness according to different amounts of HPMC and average coefficient of friction (COF); (g) Frictional behaviors with different film thicknesses.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Raman spectra for HPMC films soaked in (a) water; (b) methanol; (c) ethanol; and (d) acetone for 0, 10 and 30 min.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Three-dimensional scans of the surface morphology before/after the film was repaired: (a) left: before water treatment; right: after water treatment; (b) left: before methanol treatment; right: after methanol treatment; (c) left: before ethanol treatment; right: after ethanol treatment; (d) left: before acetone treatment; right: after acetone treatment. The solid red lines show the sectional curves before the repair, and the dashed red lines show the sectional curves after the repair.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Film thickness (a) before healing process; (b) after first water healing treatment; (c) after second water healing treatment; (d) after HPMC refill treatment; (e) Variation of film thickness after the HPMC was healed and refilled.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Coefficient of friction after the film was subjected to water healing twice and the HPMC solution was refilled once.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Tai B.L., Jessop A.J., Stephenson D.A., Shih A.J. Workpiece thermal distortion in minimum quantity lubrication deep hole drilling—Finite element modeling and experimental validation. J. Manuf. Sci. Eng. 2012;134:011008. doi: 10.1115/1.4005432. - DOI
    1. Lee P.-H., Nam J.S., Li C., Lee S.W. An experimental study on micro-grinding process with nanofluid minimum quantity lubrication (MQL) Int. J. Precis. Eng. Manuf. 2012;13:331–338. doi: 10.1007/s12541-012-0042-2. - DOI
    1. Shen B., Shih A.J., Tung S.C. Application of nanofluids in minimum quantity lubrication grinding. Tribol. Trans. 2008;51:730–737. doi: 10.1080/10402000802071277. - DOI
    1. Banerji A., Bhowmick S., Alpas A. High temperature tribological behavior of W containing diamond-like carbon (DLC) coating against titanium alloys. Surf. Coat. Technol. 2014;241:93–104. doi: 10.1016/j.surfcoat.2013.10.075. - DOI
    1. Beckford S., Cai J., Chen J., Zou M. Use of Au nanoparticle-filled PTFE films to produce low-friction and low-wear surface coatings. Tribol. Lett. 2014;56:223–230. doi: 10.1007/s11249-014-0402-4. - DOI

LinkOut - more resources