Tribological behaviors of amorphous carbon under water lubrication through a bottom-up coarse-grained method

The tribological behaviors of diamond-like carbon (DLC) are investigated through a coarse-grained (CG) modeling method, in which DLC and its force field are coarse-grained and validated based on the mechanical properties of DLC. It is found that the wear of the slider causes the loose structure of interfacial carbon clusters, and the influence of water changes from static interfacial separation to hydrodynamic lubrication. The tribological behaviors are similar to those in all-atom systems, which indicates the unchanged underlying mechanisms after coarse-graining and proves the accuracy of CG methods. Since the CG methods can efficiently reduce the particle numbers, it has great potential to predict the mechanical properties of these films and other amorphous materials with an experimental thickness. © 2023 Elsevier Ltd.