Ecotribology: Development, Prospects, and Challenges

Abstract

Ecotribology is gaining increasing attention. Our view of the environment has changed from regarding it as a constant that provides resources and acts as a sink for waste toward a more complex view, where the environment is seen as a variable that can be influenced by our activities and on which we are utterly dependent. Ecotribology can be seen as the answer to this changed role of the environment. In the very word ecotribology economical and ecological aspects meet, and indeed the field comprises green tribology, sustainability, ecological aspects, economical aspects, environmentally compatible lubricants, environmentally friendly tribology, tribology of eco-friendly applications, tribology for energy conservation, tribology for life, and renewable energy tribology. This chapter deals with components, goals, optimization levers, challenges, and prospects of ecotribological systems and gives ample examples in which regard we can learn from living nature via biomimetic approaches to achieve efficient ecotribology, concerning materials, structures, and processes.