Towards Superlubricity Under Boundary Lubrication

Fuel economy and reduction of harmless elements in lubricant are becoming crucial in the automotive industry. An approach to respond these requirements in engine components is the potential use of low friction coatings exposed to specific boundary lubrication conditions. Superlubricity is a new research field in tribology, dealing with very low friction values, typically below 0.01, and this even in dry or vacuum conditions. It is to be noticed that any friction coefficient below 0.001 is hardly measurable with the equipment at hand. Superlow friction was already experimentally observed only in ultrahigh vacuum and inert gas environment, with pure molybdenite (MoS₂) coatings [1] and in presence of some hydrogenated DLC coatings [2]. Under boundary lubrication, we show here that the coupling of hydrogen-free carbon coatings and selected organic lubricant additives permits to reach friction values approaching superlubricity and also a wearless behavior.