TY - JOUR A1 - Conrad, Andreas A1 - Hodapp, Annika A1 - Hochstein, Bernhard A1 - Willenbacher, Norbert A1 - Jacob, Karl-Heinz T1 - Low-Temperature Rheology and Thermoanalytical Investigation of Lubricating Greases BT - Influence of Thickener Type and Concentration on Melting, Crystallization and Glass Transition JF - Lubricants N2 - This study investigates crystallization, melting and glass transition of Li- and Ca-12-hydroxystearate greases in relation to the pour point of the corresponding oils. The base oils for the greases are mineral oil, polyalphaolefin, alkylated naphthalene, propylene glycol, and trimellitate. For the mineral oil-based greases the crystallization temperature Tc increases and the melting temperature Tm decreases upon addition of thickener. The pour point of the mineral oil then is 3 K below Tc and does not properly define the lowest application temperature for mineral oil (MO) based greases. Both thickeners induce a small increase of the glass transition temperature (1–3 K) of the synthetic oils polyalphaolefin, alkylated naphthalene, propylene glycol. The pour point of the base oils correlates well with the onset of the glass transition in the corresponding grease indicated by a sharp increase in grease viscosity. Pure trimellitate with unbranched alkyl chains does not crystallize upon cooling but shows noticeable supercooling and cold crystallization. As the percentage of thickener in corresponding greases increases, more oil crystallizes upon cooling 20 K above the crystallization temperature of the trimellitate without thickener (−44 °C). Here, the thickener changes the crystallization behavior from homogeneous to heterogeneous and thus acts as a crystallization nucleus. The pour point of the base oil does not provide information on the temperature below which the greases stiffen significantly due to crystallization. KW - lubricating grease; heterogeneous crystallization; glass transition; rheology; differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/lubricants10010001 SN - 2075-4442 VL - 10 IS - 1 PB - MDPI AG ER -