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Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 125505 (2008) [4 pages]

Frictional Duality Observed during Nanoparticle Sliding

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Dirk Dietzel1,2, Claudia Ritter3, Tristan Mönninghoff1, Harald Fuchs1,2, André Schirmeisen1,*, and Udo D. Schwarz3
1Physikalisches Institut and Center for Nanotechnology (CeNTech), Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Münster, Germany
2INT, Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe (FZK), Karlsruhe, Germany
3Department of Mechanical Engineering and Center for Research on Interface Structures and Phenomena (CRISP), Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA

Received 15 May 2008; published 19 September 2008

See accompanying Physics Focus

One of the most fundamental questions in tribology concerns the area dependence of friction at the nanoscale. Here, experiments are presented where the frictional resistance of nanoparticles is measured by pushing them with the tip of an atomic force microscope. We find two coexisting frictional states: While some particles show finite friction increasing linearly with the interface areas of up to 310 000  nm2, other particles assume a state of frictionless sliding. The results further suggest a link between the degree of surface contamination and the occurrence of this duality.

© 2008 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.125505
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.125505
PACS:
62.20.Qp, 07.79.Sp, 46.55.+d, 81.40.Pq

*schirmeisen@uni-muenster.de

 
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