Related papers: Observation of robust macroscale structural superl…
The understanding of friction at nano-scales, ruled by the regular arrangement of atoms, is surprisingly incomplete. Here we provide a unified understanding by studying the interlocking potential energy of two infinite contacting surfaces…
Tribological phenomena are governed by combined effects of material properties, topology and surface-chemistry. We study the interplay of multiscale surface structures with molecular-scale interactions towards interpreting static frictional…
The failure of frictional interfaces and the spatiotemporal structures that accompany it are central to a wide range of geophysical, physical and engineering systems. Recent geophysical and laboratory observations indicated that interfacial…
Structural superlubricity is a special frictionless contact in which two crystals are in incommensurate arrangement such that relative in-plane translation is associated with vanishing energy barrier crossing. So far, it has been realized…
When two solids start rubbing together, frictional sliding initiates in the wake of slip fronts propagating along their surfaces in contact. This macroscopic rupture dynamics can be successfully mapped on the elastodynamics of a moving…
A macroscopically nominal flat surface is rough at the nanoscale level and consists of nanoasperities. Therefore, the frictional properties of the macroscale-level rough surface are determined by the mechanical behaviors of nanoasperity…
Surface and interfacial energies play important roles in a number of instability phenomena in liquids and soft matters, but are rare to play a similar role in solids. Here we report a new type of mechanical instabilities that are controlled…
The key parameter for describing frictional strength at the onset of sliding is the static friction coefficient. Yet, how the static friction coefficient emerges at the macroscale from contacting asperities at the microscale is still an…
In this study, we employed lateral force microscopy, a specialized technique within atomic force microscopy, to explore the nanoscale frictional properties of 2D SnSe and SnSe$_2$ layers, and we compared these findings with graphene, a…
Nanomechanical devices can operate at much higher speeds than their macroscopic analogues, due to low inertia. For example, peak speeds >100m/s have been predicted for carbon nanotube devices. This stimulates our interest in the…
We study the sliding of elastic solids in adhesive contact with flat and rough interfaces. We consider the dependence of the sliding friction on the elastic modulus of the solids. For elastically hard solids with planar surfaces with…
We explore dynamic structural superlubricity for the case of a relatively large contact area, where the friction force is proportional to the area (exceeding $\sim 100\,nm^2$) experimentally, numerically, and theoretically. We use a setup…
We conducted lateral force microscopy measurements on seven [LaMnO$_{3}$]$_{m}$/[SrMnO$_{3}$]$_{n}$ superlattices with varied layer thicknesses. We observe that the friction forces and the friction coefficients initially increase with…
The inertial sliding of physisorbed submonolayer islands on crystal surfaces contains unexpected information on the exceptionally incommensurate smooth sliding state associated with superlubricity and on the mechanisms of its disappearance.…
In light of the race towards macroscale superlubricity of graphitic contacts, the effect of grain boundaries on their frictional properties becomes of central importance. Here, we elucidate the unique frictional mechanisms characterizing…
Using atomic force microscopy experiments and molecular dynamics simulations of gold nanoislands on graphite, we investigate why ultra-small friction commonly associated with structural lubricity can be observed even under ambient…
We determined frictional figures of merit for a pair of layered honeycomb nanostructures, such as graphane, fluorographene, MoS$_2$ and WO$_2$ moving over each other, by carrying out ab-initio calculations of interlayer interaction under…
Friction in static and sliding contact of rough surfaces is important in numerous physical phenomena. We seek to understand macroscopically observed static and sliding contact behavior as the collective response of a large number of…
This paper reports on the frictional properties of smooth rubber substrates sliding against rigid surfaces covered with various densities of colloidal nano-particles (average diameter 77 nm). Friction experiments were carried out using a…
Using molecular dynamics (MD) we study the dependency of the contact mechanics on the sliding speed when an elastically soft slab (block) is sliding on a rigid substrate with a ${\rm sin} (q_0 x)$ surface height profile. The atoms on the…