Abstract
Nano-carbons are becoming increasingly familiar to many engineers and researchers after the discoveries of carbon nanotubes as well as of Novel Prize laureated graphenes. Graphite is a well-known solid lubricant which reduces friction by an easy slip between laminated sheets. Attempts have been done to use nano-carbons, such as carbon nanotubes and carbon onions, as advanced solid lubricants. Large expectations are centered on carbon onions, because of their ball-bearing shape and their small size that is small enough to intervene in the sliding interface. Experimental works should naturally be carried out with using well-defined samples. Otherwise, the experimental results obtained from ill-defined samples cannot be extended to other experimental works, lacking in the validity and reproducibility. The present author started his tribological study first by synthesizing carbon nanotubes and onions, primarily due to the reasons stated above. Shaping of carbon nanotube bundles, micro-channel composed of carbon nanotubes, hydrogen storage in carbon nanotube forest, and amino acid formation on nano-carbons are presented.
