Tribological behaviors of three typical kinds of diamond-like carbon (DLC) films (a-C, a-C:Cr, and a-C:H) in sulfuric acid and sodium hydroxide solutions were investigated.The a-C film showed the lowest stable coefficients of friction (COF) in both sulfuric acid and sodium hydroxide solutions but the worst wear resistance in sulfuric acid solution. The a-C:H film showed the highest COF in sulfuric acid solution and the best wear resistance in both sulfuric acid and sodium hydroxide solutions. The a-C:Cr film exhibited superior comprehensive tribological performance in sulfuric acid solution, while in sodium hydroxide solution, high COF and very poor wear resistance was observed. What is more, friction and wear mechanism was revealed by investigating the friction-induced material evolutions on the sliding surface. K E Y W O R D S corrosion-wear, corrosive solutions, DLC films, tribological behaviors 1 | INTRODUCTION Diamond-like carbon (DLC) is known to be a metastable form of amorphous carbon containing the tetragonally coordinated sp 3 carbon atoms present in pure diamond as well as the trigonal sp 2 coordination as found in graphite. 1-3 Therefore, DLC films have been demonstrated to work well for a wide variety of applications because of their excellent mechanical and tribological properties. 4-10 Besides their high hardness, low wear rate, low friction coefficient, bio and hemocompatibility, the superior chemical inertness and high resistivity of DLC films make them promising materials as protective films in corrosive environments. 11-16 At room temperature, DLC films are chemically inert to practically any solvent and are not attacked by acid, alkalis, or organic solvent. 13 With these interesting properties, DLC films are promising candidates for tribocorrosion applications where superior tribological performance and corrosion resistance are simultaneously required.The sp 2 regions in amorphous networks of DLC films are found to control the electronic properties such as band gap, while the sp 3 regions are found to control mechanical properties such as rigidity, hardness, fracture toughness, and tribological properties such as wear, friction, and corrosion resistance. 1,2 Thus, it is the sp 3 /sp 2 ratio of DLC films that mainly regulate their comprehensive performance including the mechanical and tribological properties as well