Owing to the diverse composition, adjustable performance, and synergistic effect among components, core–shell micro/nanoparticles have been widely applied in the field of tribology in recent years. The strong combination with the matrix and the good dispersion of reinforcing fillers in the composites could be achieved through the design of core–shell structural particles based on the reinforcing fillers. In addition, the performance of chemical mechanical polishing could be improved by optimizing the shell material coated on the abrasive surface. The physical and chemical state of the core–shell micro/nanoparticles played important effects on the friction and wear properties of materials. In this paper, the synthesis methods, the tribological applications (acted as solid/liquid lubricant additive, chemical mechanical polishing abrasives and basic units of lubricant matrix), and the functionary mechanisms of core–shell micro/nanoparticles were systematically reviewed, and the future development of core–shell micro/nanoparticles in tribology was also prospected.

Over the past few decades, polyetheretherketone (PEEK) artificial bone joint materials faced problems of poor wear resistance and easy infection, which are not suitable for the growing demand of bone joints. The tribological behavior and wear mechanism of polyetheretherketone (PEEK)/polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) with black phosphorus (BP) nanosheets have been investigated under dry sliding friction. Compared with pure PEEK, the COF of PEEK/10 wt% PTFE/0.5 wt% BP was reduced by about 73% (from 0.369 to 0.097) and the wear rate decreased by approximately 95% (from 1.0 × 10⁻⁴ mm³/(N m) to 5.1 × 10⁻⁶ mm³/(N m)) owing to the lubrication of the BP transfer film. Moreover, BP can endow the PEEK composites with excellent biological wettability and antibacterial properties. The antibacterial rate of PEEK/PTFE/BP was assessed to be over 99.9%, which might help to solve the problem of PEEK implant inflammation. After comprehensive evaluation in this research, 0.5 wt% BP nanosheet-filled PEEK/PTFE material displayed the optimum lubrication and antibacterial properties, and thus could be considered as a potential candidate for its application in biomedical materials.

Nanoparticles agglomerate easily because of their high surface energy, which seriously reduces their tribological properties as lubricant additives. In this work, the core-shell nanoparticles Ag@polydopamine (PDA) were successfully prepared by the self-oxidation of dopamine hydrochloride on the surface of Ag nanoparticles and the dispersion of Ag nanoparticles in PAO6 was improved to promote anti-wear behaviors. The tribological properties of Ag@PDA nanocomposites as additives in poly alpha olefin (PAO) oil were studied under different concentrations, pressure and speed conditions by UMT-5 tribometer. It was demonstrated that the strong electrostatic repulsion of the PDA structure made the Ag nanoparticles better dispersed in PAO oil, thus playing a better lubricating role. When the concentration of the modified nanoparticles was 0.25 wt%, the friction coefficient of the lubricating oil decreased by 18.67% and no obvious wear was observed on the friction pair surface. When the Ag@PDA content was higher than 0.25 wt%, the tribological performance of the lubricating oil was weakened, which may be due to excessive Ag@PDA acting as an abrasive on the friction surface, thereby increasing friction and wear. The friction coefficient of the lubricating oil containing Ag@PDA decreased with the increase in load, but hardly changed with the increase in frequency.

An environmentally friendly phosphating process was proposed, which used the synergistic action of citric acid and sodium citrate to form a uniform and dense phosphating film. Compared to the phosphate coating without sodium citrate, the |Z_0.01 Hz| of the coating with 0.8 g/L sodium citrate was approximately double. The friction coefficient and wear rate decreased by 29.25% and 94.8%, respectively. The phosphating treatment method reported in this study is expected to become an important way for the anti-corrosion field to environmental protection and economic benefits development.