A nanometric cushion for enhancing scratch and wear resistance of hard films

• Katya Gotlib-Vainshtein,
• Olga Girshevitz,
• Chaim N. Sukenik,
• David Barlam and
• Sidney R. Cohen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1005–1015, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.114

• Department of Chemical Research Support, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel 10.3762/bjnano.5.114 Abstract Scratch resistance and friction are core properties which define the tribological characteristics of materials. Attempts to optimize these quantities at solid surfaces are the subject

• is subsequently capped by a titania layer, resulting in enhanced scratch/wear resistance. The physical basis of this effect is explored by means of Finite Element Analysis, and we suggest a model for friction reduction based on the "cushioning effect” of a soft intermediate layer. Keywords: finite

• also give substantial improvement in the wear and friction behavior [2]. A third approach, which has the major advantage of not changing the bulk polymer properties is to use inorganic coatings [9][10]. One such attempt to reduce sensitivity to scratching involves depositing an oxide coating on the

Fibrillar adhesion with no clusterisation: Functional significance of material gradient along adhesive setae of insects

• Stanislav N. Gorb and
• Alexander E. Filippov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 837–845, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.95

• segments are marked by black, red and green circles respectively. It is important to mention that our model is certainly limited. It does not account for plastic deformations, geometrical nonlinearity due to large deformations or friction effects. It is focused only on study of the effect of stiffness

Scale effects of nanomechanical properties and deformation behavior of Au nanoparticle and thin film using depth sensing nanoindentation

• Dave Maharaj and
• Bharat Bhushan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 822–836, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.94

• grain boundary. The stress at the grain boundary is called the pile up stress, given as where τi is the friction stress opposing the movement of the dislocations. The number of dislocations in the pile up in grain A (n1A) is greater than in grain C (n2C) due to the larger size which leads to a greater

• important for reduced friction and wear. Figure 9 shows examples of load–displacement curves at intermediate and high loads (left) along with topography maps of the nanoparticles over a 10 µm × 10 µm scan area and 2-D profiles before and after indentation (right). The intermediate and high loads were 500

• ). Compression tests, as well as indentation tests, simulate the types of contacts nanoparticles encounter during different friction and wear conditions. For this purpose, a tip approximately 3.5 µm in radius was used to carry out compression tests. Figure 10 shows a typical load displacement curve for

The optimal shape of elastomer mushroom-like fibers for high and robust adhesion

• Burak Aksak,
• Korhan Sahin and
• Metin Sitti

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 630–638, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.74

• effect of tip apex shape and friction, a model to estimate pull-off stress for mushroom-like fibers, and a comparison between cylindrical and mushroom-like fibers in terms of pull-off stress are discussed. Cohesive zone model Adhesion problems can be studied by using a cohesive zone model such as the

• . Numerical simulations Simulations are performed for a mushroom-like fiber illustrated in Figure 2 by using the analysis software COMSOL MultiPhysics 4.3 FE. It is assumed that the fiber is in full friction contact with a rigid smooth surface, which is in line with our observations during experiments with

• the limit χ → ∞ (i.e., δ → 0) can be explained by using the study of Bogy [43] on stress singularities at bimaterial wedge interfaces. For a soft incompressible elastomer (i.e, Poisson’s ratio ν = 0.5) in full-friction contact with a rigid substrate, stress at the edge of the fiber tip is finite for θ

Manipulation of nanoparticles of different shapes inside a scanning electron microscope

• Boris Polyakov,
• Sergei Vlassov,
• Leonid M. Dorogin,
• Jelena Butikova,
• Mikk Antsov,
• Sven Oras,
• Rünno Lõhmus and
• Ilmar Kink

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 133–140, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.13

• Nanotechnology Competence Center, Riia 142, 51014, Tartu, Estonia 10.3762/bjnano.5.13 Abstract In this work polyhedron-like gold and sphere-like silver nanoparticles (NPs) were manipulated on an oxidized Si substrate to study the dependence of the static friction and the contact area on the particle geometry

• . Measurements were performed inside a scanning electron microscope (SEM) that was equipped with a high-precision XYZ-nanomanipulator. To register the occurring forces a quartz tuning fork (QTF) with a glued sharp probe was used. Contact areas and static friction forces were calculated by using different models

• and compared with the experimentally measured force. The effect of NP morphology on the nanoscale friction is discussed. Keywords: contact mechanics; nanomanipulation; nanoparticles; nanotribology; scanning electron microscopy (SEM); Introduction The manipulation of nanoparticles (NPs) is a powerful

Friction behavior of a microstructured polymer surface inspired by snake skin

• Martina J. Baum,
• Lars Heepe and
• Stanislav N. Gorb

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 83–97, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.8

• of the biological model, Lampropeltis getula californiae, the California King Snake, on the friction behavior. For this purpose, we compared snake-inspired anisotropic microstructured surfaces to other microstructured surfaces with isotropic and anisotropic geometry. To exclude that the friction

• measurements were influenced by physico-chemical variations, all friction measurements were performed on the same epoxy polymer. For frictional measurements a microtribometer was used. Original data were processed by fast Fourier transformation (FFT) with a zero frequency related to the average friction and

• adaptation to reduce wear. Based on this extensive comparative study of different microstructured polymer samples, it was experimentally demonstrated that the friction-induced stick-slip behavior does not solely depend on the frictional coefficient of the contact pair. Keywords: fast Fourier transformation

Exploring the retention properties of CaF₂ nanoparticles as possible additives for dental care application with tapping-mode atomic force microscope in liquid

• Matthias Wasem,
• Joachim Köser,
• Sylvia Hess,
• Enrico Gnecco and
• Ernst Meyer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 36–43, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.4

• manipulation, i.e., the collision between the probing tip and the particle, the friction between the particles and the substrate, the role of water when measuring in ambient (lubrication, capillary effects, etc.), electrostatics between them, etc. The high surface to volume ratio of nanoparticles makes them

• adhesion strength of calcium fluoride nanoparticles adsorbed on mica and on tooth enamel in liquid with AM-AFM. Theory As already described above, manipulation experiments in the tapping-mode are difficult to quantify as dynamic and friction processes are involved at the same time. To connect the power

Challenges in realizing ultraflat materials surfaces

• Takashi Yatsui,
• Wataru Nomura,
• Fabrice Stehlin,
• Olivier Soppera,
• Makoto Naruse and
• Motoichi Ohtsu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 875–885, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.99

• technique, it does require a polishing pad to heat the substrate through friction between the polishing pad and substrate. Thus, the light must be introduced through the substrate, which should therefore be thin. Furthermore, mechanical polishing causes surface damage (scratches or pits) when the polishing

Dynamic nanoindentation by instrumented nanoindentation and force microscopy: a comparative review

• Sidney R. Cohen and
• Estelle Kalfon-Cohen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 815–833, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.93

• importance of surface effects such as friction and surface energy, dropping to the sub-optical regime made optical determination of the contact geometry impossible. This led to the need to determine the contact region size from force–displacement curves. Fundamental equations and their limitations The

• , which is in turn used to express the dynamic elastic moduli as defined above. This shift is frequency-dependent, as the various modes of internal friction of the polymer are excited at distinct characteristic times. In order to probe the viscoelasticity at the nanoscale analogous techniques are applied

• measures the energy dissipated during an oscillation cycle. The phase lag, referred to as loss tangent (tan δ), arises from any of a number of molecular-level lossy processes such as entanglement, slip or friction between the monomer units. Although the phase lag is not amenable to a direct theoretical

Energy-related nanomaterials

• Paul Ziemann and
• Alexei R. Khokhlov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 678–679, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.76

• enter both experimental and theoretical simulation routes towards materials optimization. Another materials property worth of being optimized is friction, which, when trying to walk or drive on icy streets is highly welcome, but in many cases is a source of dissipated energy. The friction of an object

• moving on or through a supporting or surrounding medium, respectively, appears to be closely related to surface or interface roughness, so that, again, the micro- and nanoscales are of major importance. For instance, a reduction of the friction of cargo vessels by only a few percent leads to considerable

• energy savings and a significant decrease of the worldwide CO2 emission [1]. It is noteworthy that the nanopatterning of surfaces and interfaces to reduce friction by tailoring their wettability and anti-fouling behavior is often guided by mimicking nature [2][3]. Contributions of advanced materials

Optimal geometry for a quartz multipurpose SPM sensor

• Julian Stirling

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 370–376, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.43

• -asperity friction [12], where the relationship between normal and lateral force is of interest. In this paper, we suggest the optimum geometry of a quartz sensor to produce a combined AFM/LFM/STM from a quartz crystal resonator with many theoretical benefits over other sensors. Combining NC-AFM and DLFM

Functionalization of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes

• Eloise Van Hooijdonk,
• Carla Bittencourt,
• Rony Snyders and
• Jean-François Colomer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 129–152, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.14

• , Dickrell et al. showed that the friction coefficient of oriented MWCNTs films depends on the temperature of the sample and the chemical groups at the surface [77]. In 2007, this problematic stirred the curiosity of Ler et al. [78]. Their work revealed the dependence of the friction coefficient on other

• as the tip moves through the film laterally is measured [79]. Under this condition, it is clear that the CNT sidewall plays a key role in determining the coefficient of friction. Moreover, the CNTs being hydrophobic [80], the water meniscus between the AFM tip and the CNT sidewall can be a hindrance

• to the tip displacement through the CNT forest and can disturb the measurement. To clarify these points, they accomplished a comparison between friction coefficient measurements for VA-CNTs modified by CF4- or O2-plasma treatment, under normal room humidity or reduced ambient humidity. The data

Low-dose patterning of platinum nanoclusters on carbon nanotubes by focused-electron-beam-induced deposition as studied by TEM

• Xiaoxing Ke,
• Carla Bittencourt,
• Sara Bals and
• Gustaaf Van Tendeloo

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 77–86, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.9

• value during deposition can lead to a varying pitch in the stripe pattering along the long axis of the nanotube. The ability to pattern the nanostructure with switchable high/low density of nanoclusters provides new potential applications in tunable wetting, adhesion, catalysis and friction properties

Effect of normal load and roughness on the nanoscale friction coefficient in the elastic and plastic contact regime

• Aditya Kumar,
• Thorsten Staedler and
• Xin Jiang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 66–71, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.7

• during nanoindentation-based scratching has been experimentally investigated by using different surfaces (fused silica and diamond-like carbon) featuring various degrees of roughness. At a sufficiently low applied normal load, wherein the contact is elastic, the friction coefficient is constant. However

• , at increased normal loads the contact involves plastic deformation and the friction coefficient increases with increasing normal load. The critical load range for a transition from predominantly elastic to plastic contact, between the indenter and sample surface, increases with increasing size of

• plasticity index and contact load. Their recent work [10] showed that the static friction coefficient (ratio of friction force and normal load) depends on the external force and nominal contact area. Recently, FEM based work by Flores et al. [11] showed that the apparent friction coefficient at a low level

Growth behaviour and mechanical properties of PLL/HA multilayer films studied by AFM

• Cagri Üzüm,
• Johannes Hellwig,
• Narayanan Madaboosi,
• Dmitry Volodkin and
• Regine von Klitzing

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 778–788, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.87

• . Both relaxation times decrease with increasing initial indentation velocity, suggesting a non-Newtonian, shear-thinning fluid character. Frequency-dependent AFM force [41] and quartz crystal microbalance measurements are planned for a better understanding of shear and friction effects on the mechanical

Effect of spherical Au nanoparticles on nanofriction and wear reduction in dry and liquid environments

• Dave Maharaj and
• Bharat Bhushan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 759–772, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.85

• applications in liquids requiring controlled manipulation and targeting. On the macroscale, nanoparticles in solids and liquids have been shown to reduce friction and wear. On the nanoscale, atomic force microscopy (AFM) studies have been performed in single- and multiple-nanoparticle contact, in dry

• environments, to characterize friction forces and wear. However, limited studies in submerged liquid environments have been performed and further studies are needed. In this paper, spherical Au nanoparticles were studied for their effect on friction and wear under dry conditions and submerged in water. In

• single-nanoparticle contact, individual nanoparticles, deposited on silicon, were manipulated with a sharp tip and the friction force was determined. Multiple-nanoparticle contact sliding experiments were performed on nanoparticle-coated silicon with a glass sphere. Wear tests were performed on the

Friction and durability of virgin and damaged skin with and without skin cream treatment using atomic force microscopy

• Bharat Bhushan,
• Si Chen and
• Shirong Ge

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 731–746, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.83

• friction and durability of damaged skin were measured and compared with those of virgin (intact/undamaged) skin. The effect of skin cream on friction and durability of damaged and virgin skin samples is discussed. The effects of velocity, normal load, relative humidity and number of cycles were studied

• . The nanoscale studies were performed by using atomic force microscope (AFM), and macroscale studies were performed by using a pin-on-disk (POD) reciprocating tribometer. It was found that damaged skin has different mechanical properties, surface roughness, contact angle, friction and durability

• compared to that of virgin skin. But similar changes occur after skin cream treatment. Rat and pig skin show similar trends in friction and durability. Keywords: atomic force microscopy; damaged skin; pig skin; rat skin; skin cream; Introduction Skin is the largest outer organ. The skin structure of

Polymer blend lithography: A versatile method to fabricate nanopatterned self-assembled monolayers

• Cheng Huang,
• Markus Moosmann,
• Jiehong Jin,
• Tobias Heiler,
• Stefan Walheim and
• Thomas Schimmel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 620–628, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.71

• SAM template. The cross section shown here is the average of the trace and the retrace images. (d) Schematic drawing of the AFM friction imaging. The first SAM that was deposited is APTES. Its height is half the height of the FDTS-SAM, which was complemented after the PMMA mask had been removed

Nanotribology at high temperatures

• Saurav Goel,
• Alexander Stukowski,
• Gaurav Goel,
• Xichun Luo and
• Robert L. Reuben

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 586–588, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.68

• , Livermore, California, USA School of Engineering and Technology, Sharda University, Greater Noida, 201306, India 10.3762/bjnano.3.68 Abstract Recent molecular dynamics simulation results have increased conceptual understanding of the grazing and the ploughing friction at elevated temperatures, particularly

• friction and nearly zero wear [1]. Recent research, however, has shown a steep rise in the grazing friction during wearless sliding, primarily attributed to the adhesion between the interacting surfaces [2]. A major assumption in the atomistic simulation associated with this finding was the consideration

• of the diamond tip as a wearless rigid body for ease of computation. Accordingly, it has been suggested [2] that the steep rise in grazing friction and the gradual drop in ploughing friction at high temperatures may affect all materials and should be pursued experimentally [3]. However, diamond is

Mapping mechanical properties of organic thin films by force-modulation microscopy in aqueous media

• Jianming Zhang,
• Zehra Parlak,
• Carleen M. Bowers,
• Terrence Oas and
• Stefan Zauscher

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 464–474, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.53

• atomic force microscopy; biomolecules; elastic modulus mapping; nanomechanical characterization; self-assembled monolayers; Introduction Mapping the mechanical properties, such as elastic modulus, friction, and adhesion of surfaces and thin films in aqueous (or liquid) environments with nanoscale

• , which suggests that the thiol molecules are not close-packed, and have some disorder in their arrangement on the surface. The contrast in the lateral-force image shows a friction difference between the gold surface and the EG3 patterns that can be attributed to the surface-energy difference between the

• stripping off of the photoresist, and backfilling in 0.5 mM EG3-thiol for 1 h. Both height and friction images do not show any pattern-related contrast, which suggests that the molecules have a similar height and the same surface chemical properties. Importantly, however, the original patterns become

Drive-amplitude-modulation atomic force microscopy: From vacuum to liquids

• Miriam Jaafar,
• David Martínez-Martín,
• Mariano Cuenca,
• John Melcher,
• Arvind Raman and
• Julio Gómez-Herrero

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 336–344, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.38

• dissipation setpoints of 1.2 pW and 4.5 pW, respectively, with the PLL enabled, as calculated following the expression [23][24] where P0 is the power dissipation caused by internal friction in the freely oscillating cantilever given by Stable imaging in DAM does not require tip safe or any other kind of

• regime, in which it is contaminated by the polymer. DAM-AFM in liquids Low quality factors are common when imaging in liquids due to the viscous hydrodynamic loading between the cantilever and the environment. This friction in some cases induces an overdamped dynamic of the cantilever, making it very

Wavelet cross-correlation and phase analysis of a free cantilever subjected to band excitation

• Francesco Banfi and
• Gabriele Ferrini

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 294–300, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.33

• ; Introduction Atomic force microscopy (AFM) has made important progresses towards the characterization of material properties at the nanoscale (elastic constants, force interactions, friction, molecular interactions, to name only a few) by means of dynamic techniques that extended the microscope capabilities

Modeling noncontact atomic force microscopy resolution on corrugated surfaces

• Kristen M. Burson,
• Mahito Yamamoto and
• William G. Cullen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 230–237, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.26

• neither crystalline nor atomically flat and this presents a challenge for the assessment of measurement resolution and the ultimate determination of the structures of interest. Problems of friction and adhesion serve as examples in which roughness is a determining factor, and a full understanding of the

Quantitative multichannel NC-AFM data analysis of graphene growth on SiC(0001)

• Christian Held,
• Thomas Seyller and
• Roland Bennewitz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 179–185, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.19

• around 100 kHz. This choice of cantilever gives the opportunity to perform complementary contact-mode friction and noncontact KPFM experiments on the same surface areas [20]. Graphene grown in UHV The substrate material for the study is the Si face of 6H-SiC(0001). The unit cell of 6H-SiC is composed of

• surface areas such as the one in Figure 4b by KPFM allows subsequent experiments to be aimed at a direct comparison between single and double layer graphene, for example, in friction experiments. While this visualization method allows for a quick identification of the surface structure, we will now

Current-induced forces in mesoscopic systems: A scattering-matrix approach

• Niels Bode,
• Silvia Viola Kusminskiy,
• Reinhold Egger and
• Felix von Oppen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 144–162, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.15

• the scattering matrix and its parametric derivatives. These are given by Equation 39 for the mean force Fν(X), Equation 42 for the correlator Dνν′(X) of the stochastic force ξν, and Equation 47, and Equation 50 for the two kinds of forces (dissipative-friction force and effective “Lorentz” force, as

• given by Equation 44. (For an alternative derivation confirming the positive sign of the friction coefficient in a resonant-level system, see [52]). After some manipulation, we obtain and hence the damping coefficient becomes We can evaluate the remaining integrals analytically in the zero-temperature

• Information File 1, Section D) combines with the elastic force to give rise to the effective potential depicted, for zero temperature, in Figure 3. As in the case studied in the previous section, the system can exhibit various levels of multistability with changes in the bias. The results for the friction