Self-Lubricating Materials for Extreme Condition Applications

• Published in: Materials Vol. 14; no. 19; p. 5588
• Main Authors: John, Merbin, Menezes, Pradeep L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 26.09.2021; MDPI
• Subjects: Alloys; Cryogenic temperature; Fluorides; Friction; High temperature; Lubricants & lubrication; Metals; Nanoparticles; Polymers; Powder metallurgy; Review; Self lubricating materials; Self lubrication; self-lubricating composites; Shear strength; Silver; Solid lubricants; State-of-the-art reviews; Tribology; wear
• ISSN: 1996-1944; 1996-1944
• DOI: 10.3390/ma14195588

Lubrication for extreme conditions, such as high temperature, cryogenic temperature, vacuum pressure, high load, high speed, and corrosive environments, is a continuing challenge among tribologists and space engineers due to the inadequate friction and wear properties of liquid lubricants. As a result, tremendous research effort has been put forward to study lubrication mechanisms for various machine elements under challenging conditions over the past two decades. Self-lubricating materials have been most widely used for adequate lubrication in extreme conditions in recent years. This review paper presents state-of-the-art of materials for lubrication in extreme condition applications in aerospace, automotive, and power generation areas. More specifically, solid lubricants dispersed in various matrices for lubrication application were analyzed in-depth under challenging conditions. This study also reports the self-lubricating materials and their lubrication mechanisms. Finally, various applications and challenges of self-lubricating materials were explored.