Confined interlayer water enhances solid lubrication performances of graphene oxide films with optimized oxygen functional groups

Graphene oxide (GO) with abundant oxygen functional groups has been widely studied as friction-reduction additive in lubricating oil or directly as solid lubricant. However, the lubrication mechanisms of these groups in solid GO lubricants have not been well revealed yet. Herein, we report a new strategy to prepare hydroxyl-carboxyl-terminated GO, hydroxyl-terminated GO, less-hydroxyl-terminated GO, and reduced GO (rGO), and then employ them as a frictional research model to address this concern. The results reveal that a little amount of water confined in GO layers dominates the interlayer shearing resistance by confining hydrogen-bond interaction. The strongest confinement effect to hydrogen-bond is achieved in hydroxyl-terminated GO, leading to the lowest shearing resistance between GO layers and then the enhanced friction performances. This finding first reveals the synergistic lubrication mechanism of oxygen functional groups and confined interlayer water molecules, providing us a new design view to fabricate superior graphene-based solid lubrication materials.