Polyacrylamide (PAM)-grafted multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTS-g-PAM) which are dispersable in water were prepared by the surface initiated redox polymerization of acrylamide using ceric ammonium nitrate (CAN) as initiator. They are soluble in polar solvents such as water, tetrahydrofuran and acetone. The chemical structure of the resulting product and the quantities of grafted polymer were determined by FT-IR, TGA. TEM, and FE-SEM observations indicated that the nanotubes were coated with a PAM layer, exhibiting core-shell nanostructures, with the PAM chains as a brush-like or hairy shell, and the MWCNTs as a hard backbone. Furthermore, the tribological properties of the prepared MWCNTs-g-PAM composites as an additive in water were evaluated with a four-ball machine. The results confirmed that the composites exhibit good anti-wear and friction reduction properties as well as load-carrying capacity. This was attributed to the possibility of the composites acting as nanometer sized tiny bearings during lubrication. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.