Frictional behavior of carbide-derived carbon (CDC) coatings on SiC was modified by using MoS3 as solid lubricants in two forms, i.e. a powder lubricant and a lubricating additive. As the powder lubricant, MoS3 was unfavorable for the tribological behavior of CDC coatings. Moreover, its friction and wear behaviors were worse than that of MoS2. As the lubricating additive, MoS3 was in-situ prepared within CDC coatings to obtain two kinds of CDC-MoS3 composites with different microstructures. The CDC-MoS3 composites showed lower friction than untreated CDC coatings and their tribological behavior was significantly affected by the microstructures. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.