Study on the Super Lubricated and Tribological Properties of Triethanolamine Borate as a New Lubricant Additive

Abstract

As a new green water‐based complete synthetic cutting fluid additive, the anti‐rust properties of triethanolamine borate have been extensively studied, but its tribological properties in the cutting process have not yet been reported. In this paper, the super-lubricity theory is applied to the study of lubricating additives. Based on the occurrence mechanism and realization conditions of super‐lubricity, founding that the triethanolamine borate has super lubricated properties through analyzing its molecular structure; the tribological properties of triethanolamine borate were further studied based on a large number of experiments. The friction coefficients of triethanolamine borate, glycerol and polyethylene glycol 400 were measured by the friction and wear tester, and the friction coefficient variation rule was obtained and the friction reduction ability of triethanolamine borate was analyzed; by analyzing physical quantities such as friction coefficient, lubrication stability, outline and morphology of wear scar, the tribological properties of aqueous solutions of triethanolamine borate with different contents were studied, and the influence rule of additive content on tribological properties was obtained. The research results show that triethanolamine borate has excellent anti‐friction and anti‐wear properties compared with the traditional lubricating additives glycerol and polyethylene glycol 400, its friction coefficient and the width and depth of the wear scar are the lowest among them; the anti‐friction and anti-wear ability of triethanolamine borate increases with the increase of its content in the aqueous solution.