Development of advanced lubricants for space mechanisms based on ionic liquids

Abstract

We present the findings of an ongoing program into the potential use of Ionic Liquid (IL) based lubricants for space mechanisms applications. This multi-stage activity includes assessment of the material properties of the promising candidate ionic fluids, their tribological performances, and vapour pressure measurements.
The activity has highlighted the potential advantages of this family of fluids for vacuum applications; namely impressively low volatilities and favourable tribological behaviours in comparison to conventional vacuum fluids. A down-selection exercise was performed, highlighting the best potential candidate ILs for further study, and validation of these behaviours at component level is planned. However, a requirement for future work is anticipated to mitigate some of the less desirable properties of ILs (namely corrosion).