All known materials wear under extended mechanical contacting. Superlubricity may present solutions, but is an expressed mystery in C-based materials. We report negative wear of carbon nitride films; a wear-less condition with mechanically induced material inflation at the nanoscale and friction coefficient approaching ultralow values (0.06). Superlubricity in carbon nitride is expressed as C-N bond breaking for reduced coupling between graphitic-like sheets and eventual N-2 desorption. The transforming surface layer acts as a solid lubricant, whereas the film bulk retains its high elasticity. The present findings offer new means for materials design at the atomic level, and for property optimization in wear-critical applications like magnetic reading devices or nanomachines.
Funding Agencies|VINN Excellence Center Functional Materials [FunMat 2005-02987]; Swedish Research Council [348-2014-4249, 621-2012-4359, 621-2012-4420, 622-2008-405]; Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research [RMA11-0029]; FLAG-ERA JTC project GRIFONE; Carl Tryggers Foundation for Scientific Research [CTS 16:165]; Swedish Government Strategic Research Area in Materials Science on Advanced Functional Materials [SFO-Mat-LiU 2009-00971]; Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation [KAW 2008-0058, KAW 2011-0143]