Superlubricity achieved by carbon quantum dots in ionic liquid

Carbon quantum dots (CQDs) and ionic liquid (IL) nanoparticles were fabricated by simple modification. The structures and properties of these particles were measured with HRTEM, FTIR, Raman Spectrometer and friction test. More importantly, IL-modified CQDs as lubricant material demonstrated excellent tribological performance and obtained a super-low friction coefficient about 0.006 and wear rate about 0.7 x 10(-14) m(3)/Nm with the CQDs content of 3.6%. The results revealed that IL-modified CQDs might provide a new idea to investigate various lubricant materials to achieve super-low friction and could be intensively studied for other practical applications. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.