Aromatic thiols as friction modifiers

COLL 164

Yutao Yang, yutao_yang@student.uml.edu and Marina Ruths, marina_ruths@uml.edu. Department of Chemistry, University of Massachusetts Lowell, 1 University Avenue, Lowell, MA 01854
Aromatic molecules are known to contribute to the natural lubricity of diesel fuel. They are less flexible than alkanes and have more complex intermolecular interactions, which makes their lubrication properties interesting also from a fundamental point of view. We have used friction force microscopy (FFM) to study the boundary friction of self-assembled monolayers of simple aromatic and polyaromatic thiols on gold substrates. Experiments were done both in ethanol (low adhesion) and in dry N2 gas (higher adhesion). In both cases, systematic differences are observed between systems with different packing density.