Abstract
The tribological behavior of complex fluids was investigated to study the mechanisms, which cause low friction values. Therefore reciprocating sliding tests using two different geometries (cylinder-on-disc, ring-on-disc) were performed. Afterwards the characteristics of the wear scars were analyzed. In addition, in-lubro infrared analysis executed to assign the relative change of the content of water during a tribological test. The mesogenic fluid MF-02/06 (µ about 0.005), imidazolium-based ionic liquids (µ about 0.02) and ionic liquid crystals (µ about 0.01) showed low friction coefficients after a specific running-in time using cylinder-on-disc geometry. The wear scars showed a characteristic grooved structure for the fluids with the lowest friction coefficients. Using in-lubro IR-spectroscopy, it was detected that the water content decreases during the tribological test, which influences the corrosive behavior.