NASA SBIR 2008 Solicitation

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Physical Sciences, Inc.
20 New England Business Center
Andover, MA 01810 - 1077
(978) 689-0003

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Bryan V. Bergeron
bergeron@psicorp.com
20 New England Business Center
Andover, MA 01810 - 1077
(978) 689-0003

Expected Technology Readiness Level (TRL) upon completion of contract: 3

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (Limit 2000 characters, approximately 200 words)
Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) proposes to synthesize, characterize, and test new ionic liquids and formulations as lubricants for aerospace applications. The compounds will operate effectively at low temperatures with appropriate viscosities, high viscosity indices, large heat capacities, and high thermal decomposition temperatures. The innovative, versatile, lubricants will also have an extremely wide liquidus range, nearly zero vapor pressure, low friction coefficients, small wear effects, and low outgassing for long-term operational stability in aerospace systems. In the Phase II program, additional ionic liquids will be identified, synthesized, characterized, formulated with various additives, and tested as liquid lubricants and base lubricants in greases for use at low temperature. Their tribological performance will be evaluated in an aerospace system(s) for TRL 3.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
The proposed lubricants and formulations will have direct applications to NASA aerospace systems that require minimal/no maintenance over extended periods of time. These compounds will provide lower volatility, decreased wear effects, and better tribological characteristics than those of standard liquid or grease lubricants that are currently used, particularly at lower temperatures.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
The proposed lubricants and formulations have applications in terrestrial machinery. They will substantially increase performance, and reduce maintenance costs and frequencies of industrial transportation and construction systems.

NASA's technology taxonomy has been developed by the SBIR-STTR program to disseminate awareness of proposed and awarded R/R&D in the agency. It is a listing of over 100 technologies, sorted into broad categories, of interest to NASA.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING

Airframe Airlocks/Environmental Interfaces Controls-Structures Interaction (CSI) Erectable Inflatable Kinematic-Deployable Tribology