A thermal ablation-resistant, wear-resistant, and friction-reducing coated piston ring, wherein an outer circumferential surface of a piston ring material matrix comprises, from bottom to top, a wear-resistant and friction-reducing layer and a protective layer;
- the wear-resistant and friction-reducing layer is sequentially arranged radially outward from the outer circumferential surface of the piston ring as follows:
- a first adhesion layer, a second adhesion layer, a gradient diamond-like carbon (DLC) layer, and a DLC functional layer;
- and
- the protective layer is a single nitride layer or a multi-element nitride layer.