C. Fred Higgs

A Review of Dry Particulate Lubrication: Powder and Granular Materials

Research efforts related to dry particulates in sliding contacts are reviewed. In the tribology community, there are primarily two types of dry particulate lubricants that are studied—granular and powder. Granular lubricants usually refer to dry, cohesionless, hard particles which transfer momentum and accommodate surface velocity differences through shearing and rolling at low shear rates, and collisions at high shear rates. Powder lubricants refer to dry, cohesive, soft particles which accommodate surface velocity differences mostly by adhering to surfaces and shearing in the bulk medium, in a manner similar to hydrodynamic fluids. Spanning the past five decades, this review proposes a classification system for the scientific works in the dry particulate tribology literature in terms of theory, experiments, and numerical simulations. It also suggests that these works can be further categorized based on their tribosystem geometry—annular, parallel, and converging.Copyright

Influence of boric acid additive size on green lubricant performance

As the industrial community moves towards green manufacturing processes, there is an increased demand for multi-functional, environmentally friendly lubricants with enhanced tribological performance. In the present investigation, green (environmentally benign) lubricant combinations were prepared by homogeneously mixing nano- (20 nm), sub-micrometre- (600 nm average size) and micrometre-scale (4 μm average size) boric acid powder additives with canola oil in a vortex generator. As a basis for comparison, lubricants of base canola oil and canola oil mixed with MoS2 powder (ranging from 0.5 to 10 μm) were also prepared. Friction and wear experiments were carried out on the prepared lubricants using a pin-on-disc apparatus under ambient conditions. Based on the experiments, the nanoscale (20 nm) particle boric acid additive lubricants significantly outperformed all of the other lubricants with respect to frictional and wear performance. In fact, the nanoscale boric acid powder-based lubricants exhibited a wear rate more than an order of magnitude lower than the MoS2 and larger sized boric acid additive-based lubricants. It was also discovered that the oil mixed with a combination of sub-micrometre- and micrometre-scale boric acid powder additives exhibited better friction and wear performance than the canola oil mixed with sub-micrometre- or micrometre-scale boric acid additives alone.

Hydrodynamics of Slurry Flow in Chemical Mechanical Polishing A Review

Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) is a process that is commonly used to planarize wafer surfaces during fabrication. Although the complex interactions between the wafer, pad, and slurry make the CMP process difficult to predict, it has been postulated that the motion of the slurry fluid at the wafer-pad interface has an important effect on the wafer surface wear distribution. This paper thus serves as a review of past studies of the hydrodynamics of slurry flow during chemical mechanical polishing. The reviewed studies include theoretical and numerical models as well as experimental measurements.

Granular Flow Lubrication: Continuum Modeling of Shear Behavior

Because at extreme temperatures, conventional liquid lubrication breaks down, researchers have proposed using flows of solid particles as a lubricating mechanism. The particles may be powders, which tend to coalesce and slide over one another in sustained contact, or granules, which collide with one another in fluctuating motion. Distinction between these two regimes is elucidated. The behavior of various granular flows is studied using a granular kinetic lubrication (GKL) model. Our GKL model is a continuum approach that applies proper rheological constitutive equations for stress, conduction and dissipation to thin shearing flows of granular particles, as well as the most rigorous boundary conditions for momentum and energy transport. A robust numerical code, utilizing Newtons finite differencing method, is developed to apply GKL theory to the problem of simple shearing flow. The code solves two second-order, coupled nonlinear ordinary differential equations with coupled boundary conditions of the first-order. As a result, new parametric curves for the local flow properties of the large-particle granular flows are constructed. Results from the GKL model agree qualitatively with past experiments using glass granules in an annular shear cell.

Vibrational Mismatch of Metal Leads Controls Thermal Conductance of Self-Assembled Monolayer Junctions

We present measurements of the thermal conductance of self-assembled monolayer (SAM) junctions formed between metal leads (Au, Ag, Pt, and Pd) with mismatched phonon spectra. The thermal conductance obtained from frequency domain thermoreflectance experiments is 65 ± 7 MW/m(2) K for matched Au-alkanedithiol-Au junctions, while the mismatched Au-alkanedithiol-Pd junctions yield a thermal conductance of 36 ± 3 MW/m(2) K. The experimental observation that junction thermal conductance (per molecule) decreases as the mismatch between the lead vibrational spectra increases, paired with results from molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, suggest that phonons scatter elastically at the metal-SAM interfaces. Furthermore, we resolve a known discrepancy between measurements and MD predictions of SAM thermal conductance by using a contact mechanics model to predict 54 ± 15% areal contact in the Au-alkanedithiol-Au experimental junction. This incomplete contact obscures the actual junction thermal conductance of 115 ± 22 MW/m(2) K, which is comparable to that of metal-dielectric interfaces.

A Mixed-Lubrication Approach to Predicting CMP Fluid Pressure Modeling and Experiments

Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) is a manufacturing process used to remove or planarize metallic, dielectric, or barrier layers on silicon wafers. During polishing, a wafer is mounted face up on a fixture and pressed against a rotating polymeric pad that is flooded with slurry. The wafer also rotates relative to the pad. The combination of load on the wafer fixture, relative speed of rotation, slurry chemistry, and pad properties influences polishing rates. Prior work has shown that an asymmetrical subambient pressure, which exceeds that expected from the applied load, can develop at the interface between the fixture and a plane pad. The spatial distribution of this pressure can be measured and then simulated using a specially designed fixture with water as the slurry. A mixed-lubrication approach to modeling the fluid pressure was developed by including the contact stress, frictional behavior, and fluid film thickness. For a given fixture/pad separation, the contact stress can be determined using a Winkler model approximation. The film thickness can be approximated as the distance from the fixture surface to the mean asperity plane. Once the fluid film thickness is known, the fluid pressure can be determined from the two-dimensional polar Reynolds equation using finite-differencing. The theoretical pressure solution was found to match the experimental pressures when the system of forces and moments were balanced. The iterative secant numerical method was employed to compute the appropriate fluid film thickness that accommodates a balanced system of forces and moments produced by the fluid/solid interactions. After the fluid pressure is determined from an initially assumed separation, all shear and normal forces are computed from the solid contact stress and hydrodynamic fluid pressure. The results agree with the experiments.

Comparative Evaluation of MoS2 and WS2 as Powder Lubricants in High Speed, Multi-Pad Journal Bearings

As part of a program to develop solid/powder-lubricate journal bearings, a comparative evaluation has been performed to aid in determining whether MoS 2 and WS 2 powder are suitable lubricants for high-speed, extreme-environment multi-pad journal bearings. Plots of traction coefficients, friction, frictional power loss, and bearing pad temperature are presented as a means for comparing various powder lubricants. This paper primarily focuses on experiments carried out on a three-pad journal bearing and a disk-on-disk tribometer. Results showed that MoS 2 traction curves resemble that of SAE 10 synthetic oil. Unlike liquid lubricants, powder films have a limiting shear strength property. Once the powder reaches this limiting value, the maximum traction coefficient is limited and the powder essentially shears along sliding walls. Experimental traction data shows evidence of this property in various powders. The thermal performance of the bearing was evaluated at speeds up to 30,000 rpm and loads up to 236 N. Although WS 2 displayed constant friction coefficient and low temperature with increasing dimensionless load, MoS 2 exhibited frictional behavior resembling that of a hydrodynamic lubricating film. In this paper, an attempt has been made to provide a criterion for the selection of solid lubricants for use in those tribosystems that may be operated in a high speed/load regime (i.e., high strain rates) as an alternative yard stick to conventional comparative approaches.

A Pin-on-Disk Experimental Study on a Green Particulate-Fluid Lubricant

The present investigation analyzes a green, petroleum-free lubricant that is produced by mixing two environmentally benign components—canola oil and boric acid powder. To study the influence of boric acid particle size and solid volume fraction on the proposed lubricant performance, pin-on-disk experiments were conducted with spherical copper pins (radius 6.5 mm) and aluminum disks (Ra = 1.35 μm). Friction coefficient measurements were taken at more than 20 distinct operating conditions while varying the lubrication condition (unlubricated, boric acid, canola oil, boric acid/canola oil mixture), boric acid volume fraction, and boric acid particle size. Based on the experiments, it was determined that a solid volume fraction of 7% with 350―700 μm particles was the optimum green particulate lubricant candidate for minimizing the friction at the conditions tested. This work also uncovered an inverse relationship between the friction coefficient and boric acid particle size (in canola oil at 7% solidfraction). Micrographs of the pin and disk wear track were analyzed to study this frictional behavior of the interface materials. Additionally, rheological tests were conducted to measure the viscosity of the canola oil and boric acid powder mixture as a function of particle size, and it was found that the viscosity increased with particle size over the size range tested. Finally, the results indicated that the boric acid-canola oil lubricant mixture demonstrated excellent potential for use as lubricants in industrial applications such as sheet metal forming.

Orientational order controls crystalline and amorphous thermal transport in superatomic crystals

In the search for rationally assembled functional materials, superatomic crystals (SACs) have recently emerged as a unique class of compounds that combine programmable nanoscale building blocks and atomic precision. As such, they bridge traditional semiconductors, molecular solids, and nanocrystal arrays by combining their most attractive features. Here, we report the first study of thermal transport in SACs, a critical step towards their deployment as electronic, thermoelectric, and phononic materials. Using frequency domain thermoreflectance (FDTR), we measure thermal conductivity in two series of SACs: the unary compounds Co6E8(PEt3)6 (E = S, Se, Te) and the binary compounds [Co6E8(PEt3)6][C60]2. We find that phonons that emerge from the periodicity of the superstructures contribute to thermal transport. We also demonstrate a transformation from amorphous to crystalline thermal transport behaviour through manipulation of the vibrational landscape and orientational order of the superatoms. The structural control of orientational order enabled by the atomic precision of SACs expands the conceptual design space for thermal science.

A Particle-Augmented Mixed Lubrication Modeling Approach to Predicting Chemical Mechanical Polishing

Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) is a manufacturing process that is commonly used to planarize integrated circuits and other small-scale devices during fabrication. Although a number of models have been formulated, which focus on specific aspects of the CMP process, these models typically do not integrate all of the predominant mechanical aspects of CMP into a single framework. Additionally, the use of empirical fitting parameters decreases the generality of existing predictive CMP models. Therefore, the focus of this study is to develop an integrated computational modeling approach that incorporates the key physics behind CMP without using empirical fitting parameters. CMP consists of the interplay of four key tribological phenomena—fluid mechanics, particle dynamics, contact mechanics, and resulting wear. When these physical phenomena are all actively engaged in a sliding contact, the authors call this particle-augmented mixed lubrication (PAML). By considering all of the PAML phenomena in modeling particle-induced wear (or material removal), this model was able to predict wear-in silico from a measured surface topography during CMP. The predicted material removal rate (MRR) was compared with experimental measurements of copper CMP. A series of parametric studies were also conducted in order to predict the effects of varying slurry properties such as solid fraction and abrasive particle size. The results from the model are promising and suggest that a tribological framework is in place for developing a generalized first-principle PAML modeling approach for predicting CMP.