In this paper, three kinds of water-soluble fullerene derivatives were synthesized via electrophilic addition reaction and cycloaddition reaction, respectively. The chemical composition characterizations of these derivatives indicated the successful preparation of C60(OH) x , C60(C(COOH)2) x and C60(OH) x (NHCH2COOH)y fullerene derivatives. The aggregation and morphology characterizations showed that the three kinds of derivatives had an ideal spherical aggregating structures and excellent dispersibility in water, especially C60(OH) x and C60(C(COOH)2) x . The lubrication performance of the fullerene derivatives acted as lubricant additives were investigated at different concentrations in the range of 0–1 wt%. The results indicated that the addition of polyhydroxyl and carboxylic derivatives could improve the lubrication properties, which led to the reduction of wear to about 40% at most. It is attributed that the optimized substitutions of fullerene molecules may be of benefit to their distribution properties and lubricating behaviors in water based lubrication.