Chemical methods controlling friction

Because of the availability of these new methods, devices, and purer materials, it has become more feasible to carry on effective research with adequate surface-chemical control of gas and liquid adsorption, wetting, adhesion, emulsification, foaming, boundary friction, corrosion inhibition, heterogeneous catalysis, electrophoresis, electrode surface potentials, and a variety of other subjects of interest in the surface-chemical and allied fields of research. In view of the present situation, serious investigators should now be able to report results in the scientific literature which will have much more value than ever before. There is no excuse for any investigator s taking such inadequate care in controlling surface composition or surface-active contaminants as was common in over 50% of the research publications in surface and colloid science in the past. 

Poly Hi Solidur Plastics India Limited [4] developed products for use on the Indian Railways based on ultra-high molecular weight PE (UHMWPE Hoechst s Hostalen GUR). The base polymer is mixed with patented additives and uses a computer controlled sintering process and sophisticated fabrication methods to produce a material which is claimed to have much higher values for a number of technically important properties such as wear, chemical and water resistance, impact strength and dynamic coefficient of friction. The growth of the market for UHMWPE products is briefly discussed, and the applications targeted by Poly Hi Solidur Plastics are discussed. 

These presumptions are based on the results of chanical composition analyses and structural determinations by beam-based analytical methods. To verify the mechanisms involved, it is essential to clarify the frictional and mechanical properties of each layer in the multilayered structure of the tribofilm. Most importantly, with respect to the uppermost surface and the underlying area, which are thought to control the macroscale friction behavior, it is indispensable to determine differences not only in surface roughness, but also in shear strength and frictional behavior relative to depth on a nanometer scale. It is also important to make clear the distribution of the chemical composition relative to the tribofilm depth and to make this chemical distribution consistent with the nanometer-scale frictional and mechanical properties. However, estimating these properties experimentally on a nanometer scale is a difficult task, although several attempts have been made [24-28],... 

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