Sodium 2-hydroxy-3-(2-hydroxyl-1-propyl sulfonate-yl-)-propyl sulfonate (SSA) was synthesized as a water-soluble lubricating fluid additive, which doesn't contain active sulfur. Its anticorrosion performances were investigated with copper and cast iron corrosion method, and its tribological behaviors in water-glycol hydraulic fluid were also evaluated with a four-ball tester. The anticorrosion test results showed that the as-synthesized sodium sulfonate was having good anticorrosion property, and the copper corrosion grade is grade A when the additive concentration was over 0.5wt%. The tribological results showed that the sulfonate salt can significantly improve the tribological property of water-glycol fluid. The antiwear and friction-reducing performances reached the best at 1.5wt% SSA concentrations, it can reduce the wear scar diameter (WSD) by 25.3%, friction coefficient by 63.1% of water-glycol at 392N, the PB value reached the 834N and near 9 times that of water-glycol. The typical elements analytical results of scanning electron microscope (SEM) with EDS and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) on the worn steel ball surfaces demonstrated that SSA molecules adsorbed on the rubbing surface and formed a stable boundary film through absorption and tribochemistry reactions between the sulfonate anions and surface metallic atoms during the sliding process, which contributed to improve the tribological properties of the base fluid. Sulfonate adsorbed on the metal surface with physical adsorption film, and the non active sulfur atoms in the sulfonic groups reacted with the metal surface to form a layer chemical reaction film which contains S, O, Fe, Na and other components to cover the surface of the friction pair during the tribological process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]