Tribochemistry of alcohols and their tribological properties: a review

Recently,alcohols have attracted more attention due to their excellent tribological performance,especially superlubricity under low loads.Alcohol solution,as a liquid lubricant,can easily reach the superlubricity state under low loads because of the formed low shear hydroxylation interfaces induced by the tribochemical reactions.A general picture and its influencing factors have been elucidated,not only at the macroscopic scale but also at the nanoscale,which is sufficient to provide effective guidance for lubrication design and tribology research in engineering.Herein,we provide a review on the recent applications of alcohols in lubrication.In addition,the material transformation caused by alcohols in friction is a key factor affecting the tribological properties.As an important two-dimensional material,the growth mechanisms of graphene are variable,and the most famous is the formation of carbon radicals under the action of metal catalysts.Thus,based on the formation mechanism of carbon friction film(such as amorphous carbon and graphene),the main content of this review also includes the transformation of graphene in alcohol solution friction process.