Important contributions of carbon materials in tribology: From lubrication abilities to wear mechanisms

Friction and wear are omnipresent, which have caused many problems such as energy dissipation and component damage, making all mankind face an energy crisis and huge economic losses. The prosperity of carbon materials in the past two decades has provided us with a versatile platform for various prominent usages like energy, electronics, and biology. At present, applications of advanced carbon materials, such as carbon nanotubes, graphite, fullerene, graphene and nanodiamonds have inaugurated a new epoch of tribology. But, fundamental tribological understandings of carbon materials, as well as their relations to polymer, metal and ceramic matrices, remain fully unexplored. Herein, this review summarizes the up-to-date advances on carbon materials for realizing superior anti-friction and wear-resistance performances in the polymer/metal/ceramic systems form micro to macro. Finally, we point out the condensed conclusions, foreseeable challenges associated with carbon materials, and potential outlooks and future recommendations of such tribological field.