Lubricants 2014, 2, 137-161; doi:10.3390/lubricants2030137 OPEN ACCESS lubricants ISSN 2075-4442 www.mdpi.com/journal/lubricants Review The Preparation of Graphene Oxide and Its Derivatives and Their Application in Bio-Tribological Systems Jianchang Li 1,2, Xiangqiong Zeng 1,*, Tianhui Ren 2 and Emile van der Heide 1,3 1 Laboratory for Surface Technology and Tribology, University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands; E-Mails:
[email protected] (J.L.);
[email protected] (E.H.) 2 School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Key Laboratory for Thin Film and Microfabrication of the Ministry of Education, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China; E-Mail:
[email protected] 3 Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research—TNO, P.O. Box 6235, NL-5600 HE Eindhoven, The Netherlands * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail:
[email protected]; Tel.: +31-53-489-4390. Received: 20 June 2014; in revised form: 15 August 2014 / Accepted: 22 August 2014 / Published: 24 September 2014 Abstract: Graphene oxide (GO) can be readily modified for particular applications due to the existence of abundant oxygen-containing functional groups. Graphene oxide-based materials (GOBMs), which are biocompatible and hydrophilic, have wide potential applications in biomedical engineering and biotechnology. In this review, the preparation and characterization of GO and its derivatives are discussed at first. Subsequently, the biocompatibility and tribological behavior of GOBMs are reviewed. Finally, the applications of GOBMs as lubricants in bio-tribological systems are discussed in detail. Keywords: graphene oxide; graphene oxide-based materials; biocompatibility; bio-tribology 1.