Abstract: Thickener is the main component of grease, whose structure and composition determine the important properties of the grease. The structural changes of thickener fiber in lithium grease during growth and destruction were studied by combination of structural simulation and experimental verification methods and MS, XRD, SEM characterization techniques. The results showed that the thickener fiber was the aggregates of thickener molecules, the growth process was a crystallization process in which the molecules of the thickener were arranged in order. The thickener fibers grow differently in three - dimensional direction: the width direction was preferred, and the length direction was followed and twisted. The destruction process of thickener fiber was opposite to its growth basically, which was more similar to the C model.

Key words: lithium grease, thickener fiber, microstructure, crystallization process