Energy-Filtered TEM is now a technique widely used in the field of tribology, in lubricated wear as well as in dry friction. Two preparation methods have been developed in the past 5 years, first is the observation of thin wear particles extracted from the tribofilm collected on a carbon film, the second is the direct observation of the tribofilm itself by the FIB technique. Also two kind of microscopes can been used, either the in-column integrated filter working in the image-spectrum mode or the FEG-HRTEM microscope equipped with the EELS detector, more dedicated to line scan studies.
Here we present applications of these techniques to investigate different tribological systems. First example is the formation of tribofilm by the tribochemical reaction with antiwear additives (containing phosphorous, sulfur and boron). A second example is the tribology of diamond-like coatings. A third example is the use of nanolubricants to replace phosphorous and sulfur in future engine oils. Fullerenes, nanotubes and onions have been used and the results of the tribochemical reaction has also been investigated by EF-TEM.

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