The friction between the walls of multi-wall carbon nanotubes is shown to be extremely low in general, with important details related to the specific choice of the walls. This is governed by a simple expression revealing that the phenomenon is a profound consequence of the specific symmetry breaking: super-slippery sliding of the incommensurate walls is a Goldstone mode. Three universal principles of tribology, offering a recipe for the lubricant selection are emphasized.
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0105449,
title = {Super-slippery Carbon Nanotubes: Symmetry Breaking breaks friction},
author = {M. Damnjanovic and T. Vukovic and I. Milosevic},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0105449},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
4 pages, 2 figures, 1 table; pdf available from: http://www.ff.bg.ac.yu/qmf/qsg_e.htm