H. F. WEBSTER ENGINEERING SERVICES, INC. — Department of Defense STTR Phase I: AFX20D-TCSO1

Description

Grease is found in a variety of applications ranging from electronics to general mechanical equipment as well as vehicles.  These greases are designed to serve a specific purpose.  Carbon and other nanomaterials, when matched to based oils based upon their chemistry can lead to a dramatic performance in many of these applications.  A key part of our innovation and intellectual property that makes this technology possible is that of the introduction of both carbon nanotubes and hydrogen bonding.  The innovators have developed a technique to utilize functionalized carbon nanotubes in order to maximize their interactions with the base fluids that form the grease.  The hydrogen bonding creates a pathway that increases electrical conductivity of the bulk material.  Normally it is very difficult to take advantage of the superior properties of individual carbon nanotubes as the junctions/gap between tubes is often so large that it creates a barrier that defeats the many advantages of carbon nanotubes.  The addition of functional groups such as hydroxyl groups can bridge this gap between tubes and overcome this gap/barrier.  It also allows for a bonding with the solvents and base fluids. Another part of this is that once we have dispersed the functionalized nanotubes in the grease base fluids, it is a stable solution that can be applied to the customers equipment as needed. Novel Nano Grease tribology testing revealed a 30% decrease in friction when compared to conventional greases.  Wear testing revealed a performance increase of 60% compared to conventional greases.  Novel Nano Grease has been prepared with thermal conductivity enhancements over the base fluid up to 545.9%.  A commercially available thermal silicone heat transfer compound from MG Chemicals showed thermal conductivity enhancements up to 143.3% with our novel addition of carbon nanomaterials.  In many cases the viscosity of the greases is not significantly changed. Generally, grease is not electrically conductive.  In applications that benefit from electrical conductivity the chemistry of the grease constituents may be matched in order to achieve the required conductivity.  Our proprietary technology utilizes functionalized carbon nanotubes along with other ingredients that are capable of hydrogen bonding, thus providing a conductive path.  Grease has been prepared with resistivity as low as 10.0 ?cm