The frictional behaviors of fullerenes C 60 and C 70 were studied because they were speculated to be solid lubricants. For the sublimated pure C 60 films on Si(001), a high friction coefficient (0.55-0.8) was observed under different loads and pin materials. For the C 70 film, the friction coefficient showed a pin dependence, which changed from 0.5 with an Al 2 O 3 pin to about 0.9 with a 440 stainless steel pin. The relatively high friction coefficients of C 60 and C 70 films were due to the tendency of the C 60 and C 70 particles to clump and compress into high shear strength layers rather than due to the impurities in the fullerenes. The benzene-solvated C 60 ? 4C 6 H 6 and C 70 ? xC 6 H 6 showed a lowered friction coefficient (0.25 for C 60 ? 4C 6 H 6 and 0.3 for C 70 ? xC 6 H 6 ), which might result from the lowered shear strength of the hcp structure of C 60 ? 4C 6 H 6 and C 70 ? xC 6 H 6 molecular crystals in which the benzene molecules were intercalated.