Liquid Crystal Lubricants Promise Close-To-Zero Frictional Losses

Lubrication enables all of the world’s machinery to function, but even then, at least a quarter of all the energy is lost to friction http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friction .Despite some ingenious lubrication methods, at least 15% of the power made in a car engine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internal_combustion_engine is lost to friction. In most machinery, frictional losses are much higher than 15% and the heat resultant from friction generates trillions of dollars of repair and maintenance every year. Now a breakthrough in lubricant design employing liquid crystals promises a vast reduction in friction and some quite remarkable lubricants are about five years from market – oils that could reduce friction to almost zero.

Lubricants in bearings http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bearing and gear units ensure that not too much energy is lost through friction. This new lubricant, developed by researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials IWM in Germany, uses liquid crystals like the ones used in LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) monitors. The big difference from normal lubricants is that molecules in liquid crystals have a certain orientation – you might compare them to matches with their heads all pointing in the same direction.

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