English

Thermodynamic aspects of nanoscale friction

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics 2019-11-07 v2 Statistical Mechanics

Abstract

Developing the non-equilibrium thermodynamics of friction is required for systematic design of low friction surfaces for a broad range of technological applications. Intuitively, the thermodynamic work done by a material sliding along a surface is expected to be partially dissipated as heat and partially transformed into the change of the internal energy of the system. However, general non-equilibrium thermodynamic principles governing this separation are presently unknown. We develop a theoretical framework based on the transition state theory combined with the conventional Prandtl-Tomlinson model, allowing to set explicit expressions for evaluating the heat dissipation and internal energy change produced during the frictional stick-slip motion of a tip of a typical friction force microscope (FFM). We use the formalism to quantify the heat dissipation for a range of parameters relevant to materials in practical applications of nanoscale friction.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1905.06426,
  title  = {Thermodynamic aspects of nanoscale friction},
  author = {Paola Carolina Torche and Tomas Polcar and Ondrej Hovorka},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1905.06426},
  year   = {2019}
}