Dear Colleagues,

The Special Issue aims to present original articles or reviews on polymer tribology. Polymer composite materials have been increasingly used for tribological applications in recent years due to their excellent self-lubricating behavior and mechanical property, yet today, much of the knowledge on polymer tribological behavior is often empirical, and very limited predictive capability currently exists. Although many studies in the last 30 years have investigated the friction and wear behavior of polymer and polymer composites under different sliding conditions, the polymer friction–wear processes, the nature of atomic or molecule wear, the wear control mechanism, and the tribofilm growth mechanisms are still not well understood for scientists, which limits the design and development of novel polymer self-lubricating composites that offer better tribological performance in different fields of application. This Special Issue of Polymers focuses on research on friction and wear mechanisms, new methods of tribological testing of polymers, and the development of new polymer lubricating materials. Articles in the Special Issue may apply to polymers, plastics, and polymer-based composites used in all areas of technology and science. The Special Issue will include the best articles on the latest achievements in the field of broadly understood polymer tribology.

This Special Issue invites original papers and reviews reporting on recent progress in the following areas:

• Tribological properties of new types of polymers and polymer composites;
• Chemical and physical modifications of polymers to improve their tribological properties;
• Novel self-adaptive or stimuli-responsive intelligent lubricating materials;
• Tribofilm growth processes and mechanisms;
• Methodology of tribological research on polymers.

Dr. Chao Wang
Dr. Fuzhi Song
Dr. Gai Zhao
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Polymers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• tribology
• wear and friction mechanism
• tribofilm
• tribochemistry
• polymer and polymer composites
• interface interaction
• polymer physics
• polymer theory
• polymer FEM or MD simulations