New Materials and Coatings for Superlubricity and Near-Wearless Sliding

Abstract

Superlubricity is defined as a new sliding regime in which friction or resistance to sliding almost vanishes. Because of its enormous implications for a wide range of transportation and manufacturing systems, it has attracted increasing interest in recent years from both the research and industrial communities (see a recent book on this subject in Ref. 1). From a practical point of view, development and uses of new materials, coatings, and/or lubricants that can enable superlubricity in moving mechanical systems will have huge positive impact on saving energy and reducing emissions. The annual cost of friction- and wear-related losses in some of the highly industrialized nations is currently estimated to be more than 5% of their gross national products. Hence, achieving superlubricity in moving mechanical systems will also have a huge positive impact on the economical well-being of all nations. In this presentation, an overview of recent progress in superlubricty research in general and novel superlow friction coatings and solid/liquid lubricated systems in particular is provided and the prospects for achieving superlubricity in real life applications are highlighted.