Designing lubricants by artificial intelligence - the sequel

摘要

New high-viscosity index oils have been designed by combining autonomous searching with ultrafast molecular-dynamics algorithms. To be brutally honest, the main tools for developing new lubricants over the last century have been trial and error, combined with luck and a good nose for promising directions. Examples of the latter include the observation that the antioxidant ZnDTP was reducing wear, later leading to its incorporation as an antiwear additive into virtually every motor oil worldwide. Computers, modeling and artificial intelligence (AI) have long shown promise for helping us in this endeavor, but so far their impact on finding new lubricants has been limited.