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Studies on ZDDP Anti-Wear Films Formed Under Different Conditions by XANES Spectroscopy, Atomic Force Microscopy and 31P NMR

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Abstract

Antiwear (AW) films, generated from a mineral base oil containing a zinc dialkyl dithiophosphate (ZDDP) additive, were studied as a function of formation temperature, load and rubbing time. The surface morphology of these films was investigated using atomic force microscopy (AFM), and surface roughness calculated for the observed differing surface morphologies. The morphology of the films is heterogeneous for all the tested conditions, but the surface roughness is dependent on the rubbing condition. X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy has been used to characterize the chemistry of these films, and the intensity of the phosphorus K-edge was also used to monitor their thickness. The thickness of these films is in the range of 10–90 nm depending on the running conditions. Phosphorus L-edge spectra show that these films have a similar chemical nature with variable polyphosphate chain-lengths. 31P NMR was used to study the decomposition of ZDDP in the residual oils. The spectra show that the primary and secondary ZDDP react differently under the various conditions. The tribological characteristics of these AW films were probed by measuring the coefficients of friction (μ) and the wear scar width (WSW) of the counter faces. μ is highly related to the applied load and the results of WSW measurements show that the wear performance is related to all the tested parameters, temperature, load and rubbing time.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Dr. Astrid Jürgensen from CSRF and to the staff of the Synchrotron Radiation Center (SRC), University of Wisconsin, Madison, for their technical support. The National Science Foundation (NSF) is acknowledged for supporting the SRC under Award #NMR-0537588. The authors also thank Imperial Oil, Canada for the ZDDP concentrate. The authors would like to thank Kyle Pollard for 31P NMR and Gord Wood for polishing steel coupons at the University of Western Ontario. This work was financially supported by the National Research Council of Canada (NRC), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and General Motors of Canada Ltd.

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  1. Department of Chemistry, The University of Western Ontario, N6A 5B7, London, Ontario, Canada

    Yue-Rong Li, Gavin Pereira, Masoud Kasrai & Peter R. Norton

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  1. Yue-Rong Li
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  2. Gavin Pereira
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Correspondence to Peter R. Norton.

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Li, YR., Pereira, G., Kasrai, M. et al. Studies on ZDDP Anti-Wear Films Formed Under Different Conditions by XANES Spectroscopy, Atomic Force Microscopy and 31P NMR. Tribol Lett 28, 319–328 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11249-007-9275-0

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