Abstract
The term “structural lubricity” denotes a fundamental concept where the friction between two atomically flat surfaces is reduced due to lattice mismatch at the interface. Under favorable circumstances, its effect may cause a contact to experience ultra-low friction, which is why it is also referred to as “superlubricity”. While the basic principle is intriguingly simple, the experimental analysis of structural lubricity has been challenging. One of the main reasons for this predicament is that the tool most frequently used in nanotribology, the friction force microscope, is not well suited to analyse the friction of extended nanocontacts. To overcome this deficiency, substantial efforts have been directed in recent years towards establishing nanoparticle manipulation techniques, where the friction of nanoparticles sliding on a substrate is measured, as an alternative approach to nanotribological research. By choosing appropriate nanoparticles and substrates, interfaces exhibiting the characteristics needed for the occurrence of structural lubricity can be created. As a consequence, nanoparticle manipulation experiments such as in this review represent a unique opportunity to study the physical conditions and processes necessary to establish structural lubricity, thereby opening a path to exploit this effect in technological applications.
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Dirk DIETZEL. He received his Diploma and PhD degree in Experimental Physics from the University of Bochum, Germany, in 1997 and 2001, respectively. After two years as a PostDoc at the University of Bordeaux, France, he joined the Nanomechanics Group of Andre Schirmeisen at the University of Münster, Germany. Since 2011 he is working at the University of Giessen, Germany, where he is heading the nanofriction branch at the Institute of Applied Physics. His main research areas are atomic force microscopy and nanotribology, with a particular focus on applying nanomanipulation techniques to tribological questions.
Udo D. SCHWARZ. He is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science and Chemical & Environmental Engineering, Yale University. He graduated in 1989 from the University of Basel, Switzerland, receiving his PhD degree in physics from the same institution in 1993. Subsequently, he continued his work as a staff scientist and lecturer at the Institute of Applied Physics of the University of Hamburg, Germany. In 2001, Prof. Schwarz moved to the Materials Science Department of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California. Since 2002, he works at Yale’s Mechanical Engineering Department, where he got promoted to full professor in 2009 and department chair in 2012. His research interests concern the local measurement of atomic-scale interactions and properties, including electric, magnetic, chemical, and nanotribological interactions, using scanning probe microscopy techniques to study problems in surface physics, catalysis, friction, and adhesion.
André SCHIRMEISEN. He is a Professor and Director of the Institute of Applied Physics (IAP), Justus-Liebig University Giessen, Giessen, Germany. He graduated in 1995 from the RWTH Aachen, Germany and received his PhD degree in physics from McGill University, Montréal, Canada in 1999. After this he worked as a strategic business consultant for the Boston Consulting Group for a year and then re-continued his academic career in 2001 as a staff scientist and lecturer at the Institute of Physics at the Westfalian-Wilhelms University Münster, Germany. In 2010 he accepted a senior professorship position at the Institute of Applied Physics at the Justus-Liebig University Giessen. His research interests concern the local measurement of atomic-scale force interactions, with a special focus on nano- and mesoscopic tribology phenomena. Further interests are self-assembly mechanisms of functional organic molecules on surfaces as well as local conductivity properties of battery electrodes and ionic liquids.
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Dietzel, D., Schwarz, U.D. & Schirmeisen, A. Nanotribological studies using nanoparticle manipulation: Principles and application to structural lubricity. Friction 2, 114–139 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40544-014-0054-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40544-014-0054-2