The advanced manufacturing technologies have driven mechanical equipment toward higher speeds, greater loads, and longer service lifetimes. The intensive and high-frequency operation inevitably leads to friction and wear of mechanical components, compromising their reliability, functionality, and service life, as well as leading to safety issues and causing considerable waste of energy and resources. However, conventional mineral oils and synthetic lubricants still suffer from several inherent limitations, including environmental pollution, high volatility, potential toxicity, and insufficient adaptability under extreme operating conditions. Therefore, the development of green, efficient, and sustainable lubrication materials has become an urgent demand for next-generation mechanical systems.
DESs, as a new class of solvents, have emerged as promising candidates for next-generation lubrication systems owing to their tunable molecular structures, low volatility, facile preparation, and unique physicochemical properties. Recent studies have demonstrated that DESs can function not only as high-performance lubricants but also as multifunctional additives and building blocks for advanced lubrication materials. Nevertheless, despite their remarkable potential in tribology, DES-based lubricating materials still face several challenges. These include insufficient understanding of their environmental compatibility, unclear correlations between molecular structures and tribological behaviors, limited knowledge regarding interfacial lubrication mechanisms, and practical constraints associated with large-scale engineering applications.
In this review, the classification, physicochemical characteristics, and lubrication properties of DESs are systematically summarized. The advantages and application progress of DESs as liquid lubricants, lubrication additives, eutectogel lubricants, and other DES-containing lubrication materials are comprehensively discussed. Particular attention is devoted to elucidating the fundamental mechanisms governing their tribological performance, including the formation and evolution of hydrogen-bond networks, interfacial adsorption behaviors, and tribochemical reactions during friction processes. Furthermore, the key factors influencing lubrication efficiency and the challenges associated with practical applications are analyzed, followed by perspectives on future development directions of DES-based lubrication technologies. This review provides a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between DES molecular design, interfacial interactions, and lubrication performance, offering theoretical insights and technical guidance for the development of high-performance, environmentally sustainable lubrication materials for advanced engineering applications.Liquid lubricants are the primary solution for reducing friction and wear toward the wear-prone areas caused by friction in the machinery.
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References
DOI
10.3724/trad-20260004
Original Source URL
https://doi.org/10.3724/trad-20260004
Funding Information
This work was supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XDB 0470302), the Key Research and Development Program of Gansu Province - Industrial Project (Grant No. 25YFGA012), CAS “Light of West China” Program, Gansu Province Science and Technology Plan (24ZD13GA001), and Excellent Doctoral Project of the Natural Science Foundation of Gansu, China (24JRRA072, 25JRRA483). A. Rosenkranz gratefully acknowledges the financial support of ANID-Chile within the projects Fondecyt Regular 1220331 and Fondequip EQM190057 as well as the Millennium Science Initiative Program (NCN_2023_007).
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Tribology Advances aims to serve as a premier platform for scientists, engineers, and researchers worldwide to disseminate cutting-edge discoveries and foster global academic exchange including but not limited to the following topics: lubricating materials, tribological design and calculation, surface/interface engineering, micro/nano tribology, industrial tribology, and frontier of tribology, etc.