Nanoparticles as lubricant additives
Introduction
Lubrication refers to interposition of solid, liquid or gaseous material in between surfaces of two material in contact to minimize friction and wear. All commercially available lubricants have additives in their formulation which enhance certain properties of oil like friction reduction, wear...Read More »
Achieving superlubricity with high temperature
Lubrication between two surfaces depends on their respective co-efficient of frictions, surface finishes and also the type of lubricant used, if there is any. It is known that the temperature at which these surfaces are placed will also play a crucial role in such cases. This is put...Read More »
Discontinuous Shear Thickening
If you sometimes wander on youtube, you have probably already seen a video about experiments on cornstarch mixed with water. They were quite popular a few years ago. These videos show the surprising properties of the mixture (also known as oobleck, as in the book of Dr Seuss):...Read More »
An Engineered Salvinia-like Slippery Surface
The surface properties of materials are often critical because they dictate how they react with their external environment. An important property currently under intense investigation is how surfaces interact with liquids like water.
In a wide range of industrial applications, superhydrophobic surfaces (SHPOS) play an important role....Read More »
Structural Lubricity: A Recent Overview
Tribology is largely concerned with understanding of the (friction) forces acting at the interface between objects moving against each other (Menezes et al., 2013). Over the recent years there has been significant progress in understanding and controlling friction, and in the beginning of 1990s, a new...Read More »
Close Examination of Frictional Wear on an Atomic Scale
Friction and wear have long been a focus of scientists, researchers, engineers, and industries around the world. The common goal is to maximize profits, however, the environmental impact becomes even more important. Wear and friction on machinery and its various components work against...Read More »
A New Way to Understand Friction
Friction is a part of everyday life. Most of us do not think about friction at all, except perhaps when we are trying to push something heavy along the floor, cursing the friction that it is making it more difficult.
Friction has its useful aspects,...Read More »
Superlubricity of carbon nanotubes as a prerequisite for mechanically activated ionic transport
The field of nanofluidics is the study of the behavior, control and manipulation of fluids that are confined in extremely small structures. The dimensions of these minute structures typically range from 1 nanometer to 100 nanometers (1 nm = 10-9 m). The fluids constrained within these nanostructures...Read More »
Biodegradable Triboelectric Nanogenerators to Power Implantable Sensors
Energy harvesting (also sometimes called scavenging) is a process of energy derivation from the ambient sources, e.g., sunlight, wind, heat, mechanical vibrations, etc. The main idea is that devices can collect the energy present in their...Read More »
Origins of Sliding Friction
Origin of sliding friction: role of lattice trapping
[avatar user=”avinash” size=”original” align=”left” link=”https://www.linkedin.com/in/avinash-tiwari-91a0831b/”] The article was co-authored by Dr. Avinash Tiwari, Postdoctoral Researcher at Forschungszentrum Jülich. [/avatar]
[avatar user=”[email protected]” size=”original” align=”left”] The article was co-authored by Dr. Jianjun Wang, a visiting scholar at Forschungszentrum Jülich, EU and associate professor at Zhongyuan...Read More »
Friction Forces Between 2D Materials and Liquids
2D materials deserved an interest in material science and other disciplines due to their exciting electronic, mechanical, and optical properties. The unique behavior of these materials originate from very strong in-plane atoms interactions and very weak van der Waals out-of-plane interactions. Graphene, a single layer of carbon...Read More »
High Hardness Boron Rich Boron Carbide is Synthesized using CVD
[avatar user=”Aydar Akchurin” size=”original” align=”left” link=”https://www.linkedin.com/in/aydar-akchurin/”] The article was written by Dr. Aydar Akchurin[/avatar]
Hardness is a material’s resistance to plastic deformation and this property is widely used to rank materials for various engineering applications. Hard materials can be used for cutting, drilling. Hardness frequently correlates with...Read More »
Atomic scale deformation responsible for surface roughness
[avatar user=”Aydar Akchurin” size=”original” align=”left” link=”https://www.linkedin.com/in/aydar-akchurin/”] The article was written by Dr. Aydar Akchurin[/avatar]
Most of the natural or engineered surfaces are not perfect, meaning they are rough. The surface roughness was found across many scales: from atomic to tectonic. The earth looks smooth from space, but someone...Read More »
Physicists are one step closer to understand lubrication at nanoscale
[avatar user=”Aydar Akchurin” size=”original” align=”left” link=”https://www.linkedin.com/in/aydar-akchurin/”] The article was written by Dr. Aydar Akchurin[/avatar]
The famous picture of transportation of an Egyptian statue to the grave of Tehuti-Hetep, El-Bersheh indicates that the concept of lubrication was already known to ancient Egyptians. The picture below shows how the...Read More »
Roughness of the solid particles controls the viscosity of suspension
The internet is full of videos of people having fun running over white slime. It almost looks as if they were walking on water. But when they stand still, they slowly begin to sink. The slime in question is usually a concentrated suspension comprising cornstarch and water. Although...Read More »
Bio-based material stronger than steel and spider silk altogether
Researchers at KTH have produced a bio-based material that is reported to surpass the strength of all known bio-based materials whether fabricated or natural, including wood and spider silk.
Working with cellulose nanofibre (CNF), the essential building block of wood and other plant...Read More »
Levitated nanoparticles reveal the crucial role of friction in state transitions at nanoscale
Experiments with levitated nanoparticles reveal role of friction at the nanoscale
Transitions occurring in nanoscale systems, such as a chemical reaction or the folding of a protein, are strongly affected by friction and thermal noise. Almost 80 years ago, the Dutch physicist Hendrik Kramers predicted that such transitions...Read More »
Researchers simulate wear of materials as they rub together
Forty years ago, MIT emeritus professor of mechanical engineering Ernest Rabinowicz calculated that 6 percent of the annual U.S. gross domestic product was lost through mechanical wear. His assertion gained enough traction that it became known as the “Rabinowicz Law.”
“Even so, the mechanism by which mechanical...Read More »
Bi-layered materials: graphene - no heat, no friction; h-BN - as strong as diamond.
A group of researchers from Queen’s University Belfast have discovered a stretchy miracle material that could be used to create highly resistant smart devices and scratch-proof paint for cars.
Led by Dr Elton Santos from the University’s School of Mathematics and Physics, an international team of researchers...Read More »
Triboelectric charges on HDPE are strain induced
New research indicates how static electricity puts the charge in material, offering answer to centuries-old question
For centuries, scientists have tried to understand triboelectric charging, commonly known as static electricity.
Triboelectric charging causes toner from a photocopier or laser printer to stick to paper,...Read More »
Nanotechnology Flight Test
Mastering the intricacies of controlling matter at the nanoscale level is part of a revolutionary quest to apply nanotechnology to benefit industrial processes. A key element of that technology is the use of carbon nanotubes.
Carbon nanotubes are small hollow tubes with diameters of 0.7 to 50...Read More »
Triboelectricity to collect wave power
Nature provides three sources of energy for free: sunlight, air and gravity. Solar and wind power are increasingly exploited, gravity less so. Hydraulic power plants harvest energy from flowing rivers. Tidal energy can be gathered along some inlets and coasts. But few places are suitable for dams or...Read More »
Ice crystals formation is controlled by the surface texture - new study shows
WASHINGTON (May 17, 2017)—A new study examining how ice forms from pure water found that the geometry of the surface that water is on can have an effect on whether or not it freezes, suggesting that surface geometry plays an important role in ice formation. Greater understanding of...Read More »
Three-dimensional subatomic scale AFM can measure friction
Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is an extremely sensitive technique that allows us to image materials and/or characterize their physical properties on the atomic scale by sensing the force above material surfaces using a precisely controlled tip. However, conventional AFM only provides the surface normal component of the force...Read More »
Triboelectric generators can be used to improve mass spectroscopy sensors
Triboelectric nanogenerators convert mechanical energy harvested from the environment to electricity for powering small devices such as sensors or for recharging consumer electronics. Now, researchers have harnessed these devices to improve the charging of molecules in a way that dramatically boosts the sensitivity...Read More »
Friction Velocity Dependence - Breaking Friction Laws
Controlling friction is one of the main goals in modern tribology. Due to complexity of the tribological processes, up to date the problem remains mainly unsolved. While classical tribology relies on the famous friction laws, developments in nanotribology made it evident that these laws...Read More »
Controlling friction of graphene
Graphene, a wonder just one atom thick material, shows incredible wear-resistance and super low friction levels. This behavior is ascribed to its low inter-layer shear properties and high normal load carrying capabilities. However, in many cases controlling friction is preferable. Apparently, this is possible with graphene, which makes it...Read More »
Switchable Friction on Graphene
Graphene is a unique material in many aspects and has recently been applied in various ways. In tribology, it has been shown to lead to a superlubricity – an ultra low friction state. In laboratory air, graphene was reported to show twofold symmetry in friction and anisotropy...Read More »
2D Materials Elastic Properties - AFM-Hertz Methodology
2D materials are single or only few atomic layer thick and posses unique properties with potential in many technological fields. They are highly anisotropic, having significantly different properties in-plane and perpendicular-to-the-plane. For example, graphene, one of the most explored 2D materials, has the in-plane Young’s modulus , whereas the perpendicular-to-the-plane...Read More »
Superlubricity by means of repulsive van der Waals forces
Superlubricity, a state of low friction (<0.001), can be achieved by different mechanisms. The structural superlubricity occurs, if the crystal lattices of the contacting bodies are incommensurate. Nano-scrolls may act as a bearing and may also lead to the Read More »
Relativistic Tribology, Tribo Plasma
Gravitational waves were proved to exist, thus validating one more prediction by Albert Einstein and his general theory of relativity! Is there any relation between the relativity and Tribology? It looks like there is! “Micromechanisms of Friction and Wear: Introduction to Relativistic Tribology” is a fascinating book,...Read More »
Superlubricity state through atom-by-atom surface tuning
Friction is everywhere around us, working against motion of cars, airplanes, their engines, wind mills and other devices causing wear and decreasing their energy and overall performance efficiency. However, there exists a certain state, called superlubricity, at which the friction vanishes. This effect can potentially lead to significant improvements in...Read More »
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