The Tribochemistry Award
Presented toDr. Ali Erdemir
In recognition of his outstanding contributions to tribochemistry by The Tribochemistry
Technical Committee (Chair: Dr. Keiji Nakayama), Japanese Society of Tribologists (JAST)
in September 2023 at “Tribochemistry Beppu 2023”.

Dr. Erdemir was born in Adana-Turkey in 1954. Following his undergraduate education at theIstanbul Technical University (from 1972 to 1976) and a short industrial employment, he moved
to the United States for his graduate studies and obtained his Master and Ph.D. degrees from theGeorgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta in 1982 and 1986, respectively. In 1987, he joined theArgonne National Laboratory as an Assistant Scientist and worked on a wide spectrum oftribology projects until 2019. In 2020, he accepted an academic position at Texas A&M
University as a TEES Eminent Professor and a Halliburton Chair in the Mechanical Engineering
Department.
Dr. Erdemir has dedicated his entire professional life (over 35 years) to the design, discovery anddevelopment of novel materials, coatings, and lubricants that can enhance energy efficiency,
durability, and environmental compatibility of all forms of moving mechanical systems. Almostall of his research initiatives aimed at reducing energy and carbon footprints of these systems tohelp with global sustainability goals. Some of his major accomplishments include: (1) discovery
of boron-based solid lubricants and lubrication additives; (2) discovery of near-frictionlesscarbon films and work on superlubricity; (3) nanocrystalline diamond and nanocomposite
carbide derived carbon films; (4) superlubricious graphene films, (5) catalytically active
nanocomposite coatings, lubricants, and additives, (6) large-scale ultra-fast boriding, and (7)upcycling of waste plastics into high-performance lubricants.

Dr. Erdemir’s pioneering research work on boron-based lubricants started in 1987 and resulted in
the discovery of new chemistries providing extreme resistance to wear and scuffing intribological applications. His current research focuses on new variants of such lubricants
including boron-based ionic liquids and oil-soluble borate esters that can trigger a special form oftribochemistry and hence superior lubricity and durability on moving mechanical surfaces.
Dr. Erdemir was also among the earliest pioneers of carbon-based tribological coatings including
diamondlike carbon (DLC), ultrananocrystalline diamond (UNCD), carbide-derived carbon(CDC), graphene and other 2D materials. His work on DLC started back in 1988 and throughvery rigorous chemical and structural optimizations, his team synthesized a nearly frictionlessversion of DLC, providing friction coefficients down to 0.001 level (this was perhaps the lowest
friction ever reported for a solid material at macro/engineering scales) in 1997. His dedicatedresearch on these and other DLC films has unraveled the very rich tribochemistry of suchcoatings under dry and lubricated conditions and hence paved the way for numerous applications
ranging from hard disk drives to a variety of automotive components. From early 1995 to 2010,
Dr. Erdemir has also studied the friction and wear properties of UNCD and CDC films andconfirmed for the first time that through some very unique tribochemical interactions, thesecoatings can provide some of the lowest friction and wear coefficients. One of Dr. Erdemir’sother pioneering scientific endeavors has been in the field of graphene tribology. With hiscollaborators, he showed that even a few layers of graphene can reduce wear by more than 3orders of magnitude and in combination with nanodiamond and DLC coatings, graphene canprovide friction coefficients down to 0.004.
Dr. Erdemir’s work on catalytically active nanocomposite coatings has started back in 2012 andyielded a groundbreaking discovery. Specifically, with his research team, Dr. Erdemir showedthat these coatings can trigger a special kind of tribochemistry: they can catalytically crack longchain hydrocarbon molecules of oils and deposit them on sliding surfaces as diamondlike carbon,graphene, and nanotube-rich boundary layers in a self-healing manner. In his latest researchendeavors, Dr. Erdemir has been focusing on electric-vehicle tribology and exploring a new way
to convert waste plastics into high-performance lubricants. The overall aim of these new
initiatives is to reduce the adverse environmental impacts of internal combustion engines and ofwaste plastics being released to our environment and thus help with global sustainability goals.
Reflective of his sustained and pioneering research accomplishments over the past three decades,
Dr. Erdemir has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering in the USA (one of thehighest honors) and several other academies from around the world. He has also received theInternational Award of the Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers, the Distinguished
Tribologist Award of the Japanese Society of Tribologists, and the Mayo D. Hersey Award ofthe American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He has also been elected to serve as thePresident of the International Tribology Council from 2017 to 2022 and the Society ofTribologists and Lubrication Engineers from 2016 to 2017. He is a Fellow of AAAS, ASME,ASM-International, STLE and AVS and has authored/co-authored more than 240 refereed
journal articles and presented over 200 plenary, keynote, and invited talks. He also holds 35 US

patents. He has contributed to the ITC and WTC satellite forums on Tribochemistry as a memberof the International Advisory Board for many years.
In conclusion, Dr. Erdemir has contributed significantly to the development of tribochemistry
through his pioneering research work from basic science to technological applications in multiple
areas of tribology by developing advanced new approaches, especially those based on tribomaterials, tribo-coatings and lubricants.

With all these credentials, Dr. Erdemir is indeed a worthy recipient of the world’s highest honor
in tribochemistry – The Tribochemistry Award for 2023.