Actually, I rarely get involved in the topic of 'nanomaterials'. Firstly, I have limited knowledge and skills, and the concept of nanomaterials is like clouds and mist that I have never been able to grasp; Secondly, nanomaterials are still an emerging interdisciplinary field that is rapidly developing. Lubricating oil, as a highly applied technology field, seems to be lagging behind in my opinion. I would like to observe the application prospects or effects of nanomaterials and discuss further. Nowadays, some of my former classmates are engaged in fundamental nano research, and industry colleagues often mention nano lubricants, haha, avoid them. Dare to share your humble opinion on nano lubricating materials.

The so-called nanomaterials have a nanoscale structure of 1-100nm, and it is precisely because of this structure that they have the specificity between individual molecules and bulk materials. In recent years, research on nanomaterials has penetrated into many fields, attracting increasing attention due to their unique structure, properties, and broad application prospects. The reason why nanomaterials exhibit these peculiar properties is mainly due to the physical effects that macroscopic substances do not possess or can be ignored in macroscopic substances after entering the nanoscale. According to current research on nanoparticles, these effects mainly include surface effects, quantum size effects, small size effects, macroscopic quantum tunneling effects, etc.

① Surface effect: The proportion of surface atoms in nanoscale structures increases sharply as the size of the nanostructure decreases. This can be concluded based on imagination. The property change caused by the sharp increase in the proportion of surface atoms as the size of the nanostructure decreases is called surface effect. The size of nanoscale structures decreases, the number of surface atoms increases sharply, and the specific surface area and surface binding energy increase rapidly. Due to the increase in the number of surface atoms and insufficient atomic coordination, many defects are inevitably present on the surface of the nanostructure, making these surfaces highly active, i.e. highly unstable, and easily bound to other atoms. This atomic activity not only causes changes in surface atomic transport and configuration, but also changes in surface electron spin phase and electron energy spectrum, which has important impacts on the optics, photochemistry, electronics, and other aspects of nanomaterials. In practical applications, it is sometimes necessary to confine and passivate these surface atoms of nanostructures, eliminate surface states, or modify the surface of nanostructures to achieve their novel physical and chemical properties. It can be imagined that the physics and chemistry of lubricants is an important branch of interface science. Before nanotechnology, the so-called surface adsorption and separation of lubrication and friction, the existence of surface facial mask has been so complex. If this surface effect of nano materials is added, the lubrication technology will become more colorful.