Like the multilayered graphene which is the most widely used solid lubricant, graphdiyne (GDY) as a 2D material holds potential similar prospects but has been rarely researched so far. One reason is that growing a GDY film in a controllable manner on diverse material surfaces remains a great challenge. To address the issue, a catalytic pregrowth and solution polymerization method is developed to synthesize a GDY film on various substrates. It allows fine control over film structure and thickness. A macroscopic ultralow friction coefficient of 0.08 is obtained, and a relatively long life of more than 5 h under a high load of 1378 MPa is achieved. Molecular dynamics simulations together with the surface analysis demonstrate that the increased deformation degree and weakened relative motion between GDY layers contribute to the low friction. Especially, different from graphene, the friction of GDY exhibits a double increase and decrease in one period of λ ≈ 8-9 Å, and it is roughly equal to the distance between two adjacent alkyne bonds in the x direction, indicating GDY's structure and lattice play an important role in reducing friction.
Keywords: graphdiyne film; interface behavior; solid lubrication; ultralow friction; various substrates.