트라이볼로지 / Tribology
Global warming and environmental challenges are emerging along with CO2 emission regulations. Entering the modern age, science, and technology are evolving: it is getting super-specialized and multi-disciplinary in their depth and breadth of knowledge, and researchers are collaborating on issues that cut across transcends countries by accessing scientific expertise. Additionally, global challenges like energy consumption, resource depletion, greenhouse gas emissions, and climate change are converging, and many brains are drawn from a variety of fields to come up with a wide range of solutions. Research on carbon neutrality is being actively conducted in each research field.
The discipline of tribology is included in the category of end-use energy efficiency, which accounts for the greatest 38 % of essential technologies, according to the IEA report from 2014 for the reduction of CO2 emissions. Additionally, a significant portion of the annual CO2 emissions worldwide, 7,000 and 1,000 MtCO2, respectively, are caused by friction and wear. Tribological solutions, from which research on anti-friction and wear resistance is required, are assessed as a significant technology for lowering CO2 emissions. Tribological innovations for carbon neutrality are expected to increase energy and economic benefits in addition to lowering CO2 emissions.
Tribology, which was first named by P. Jost in the U.K. in 1966, is a term created based on the Greek words "τρίβω (tribo-, tribos; namely “rubbing”)" and “-λογία (-logia, -ology; namely “the study of”)”, meaning “the science and technology of interacting surfaces in relative motion and of related subjects and practices.”. In order to understand all phenomena on the surface of objects, multidisciplinary background knowledge is required, including physics, chemistry, materials science, quantum mechanics, elastoplastics, fracture mechanics, fluid mechanics, and thermodynamics. Understanding these complex surface phenomena is considered a core technology needed to further develop various industrial fields, from the mobility industry, which is a key national industry, to the aerospace industry.
Therefore, tribology, defined as the science and technology of friction, lubrication, and wear, is indispensable for the industrial revolution and technological advancement for sustainable development. Its importance has been on the rise since the 1960s through the Industrial Revolution and has since become increasingly important to save energy and prevent material loss for maximum efficiency. The need for "surface design" is increasing to realize high functionality/high performance that cannot be achieved by "form design" alone. To solve this problem, research on diamond-like carbon (DLC, amorphous carbon), which can simultaneously implement anti-friction and anti-wear, is actively underway.