In situ characterization of nanoscale contaminations adsorbed in air using atomic force microscopy

• Jesús S. Lacasa,
• Lisa Almonte and
• Jaime Colchero

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2925–2935, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.271

• specified properties during AFM operation [19][20]. Tip degradation, either tip wear or tip contamination from the sample, is mainly induced by AFM operation [18][20][21]. Other kinds of contamination that may affect the tip are organic contamination from ambient air, metallic pollutants due to the

Biomimetic surface structures in steel fabricated with femtosecond laser pulses: influence of laser rescanning on morphology and wettability

• Camilo Florian Baron,
• Alexandros Mimidis,
• Daniel Puerto,
• Evangelos Skoulas,
• Emmanuel Stratakis,
• Javier Solis and
• Jan Siegel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2802–2812, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.262

• well defined. In terms of biomimetics, these structures resemble the tiles found on the skin of the Python regius snake, whose microstructure makes it very resistant to damage from wear by reducing friction (c.f. Figure 2E). Laser-based surface texturing has been used to mimic this structure in steel

Characterization of the microscopic tribological properties of sandfish (Scincus scincus) scales by atomic force microscopy

• Weibin Wu,
• Christian Lutz,
• Simon Mersch,
• Richard Thelen,
• Christian Greiner,
• Guillaume Gomard and
• Hendrik Hölscher

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2618–2627, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.243

• sandfish due to their ability to swim in loose, aeolian sand. Some studies report that this fascinating property of sandfish is accompanied by unique tribological properties of their skin such as ultra-low adhesion, friction and wear. The majority of these reports, however, is based on experiments

• conducted with a non-standard granular tribometer. Here, we characterise microscopic adhesion, friction and wear of single sandfish scales by atomic force microscopy. The analysis of frictional properties with different types of probes (sharp silicon tips, spherical glass tips and sand debris) demonstrates

• analysing the locomotion of sandfish in granular media via nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging [2] or high-speed X-ray imaging [4] indeed show that the movement of a sandfish resembles that of swimming fishes. It is surprising that sandfishes manage to bury and swim in sand without visible wear on

Friction reduction through biologically inspired scale-like laser surface textures

• Johannes Schneider,
• Vergil Djamiykov and
• Christian Greiner

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2561–2572, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.238

• and wear are responsible for more than 20% of the world’s total energy consumption [1]. This staggering number demonstrates that tribology, the study of interacting surfaces in relative motion, is a prime candidate when it comes to reducing CO2 emissions and discovering a more efficient use of

• resources. In order to do so, new strategies for optimized tribological systems have to be considered. Among them are the formulation of new lubricants [2][3], novel coatings [4][5][6], a more thorough understanding of the basic materials science principles governing friction and wear of bulk materials [7

• demonstrated, for example, that sandfish skin exhibits low friction and little wear [25][26]. The development of manufactured surface textures that are inspired by animals with scale-like surface morphology has resulted in fascinating insights. For texturing a titanium alloy, a lithography-based method was

Evidence of friction reduction in laterally graded materials

• Roberto Guarino,
• Gianluca Costagliola,
• Federico Bosia and
• Nicola Maria Pugno

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2443–2456, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.229

• , display setae with a graded stiffness that optimises the adhesive performance on rough surfaces [1]. Hardness and stiffness gradients are of fundamental importance in the biomechanics of contacts, since they allow increased resistance against wear, impact, penetration and crack propagation [2][3][4][5][6

Nanotribology

• Enrico Gnecco,
• Susan Perkin,
• Andrea Vanossi and
• Ernst Meyer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2330–2331, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.217

• : nanotribology; nanoadhesion; nanofriction; Nanotribology is a young and dynamic field of research which aims to investigate friction, wear and adhesion phenomena down to the nanometer scale. Since these phenomena occur in all natural, artificial or conceptual situations involving two surfaces (at least) in

• (e.g., circular mode AFM) for investigation of abrasive wear are proposed by Noel et al. [10]. Considering the interdisciplinary nature of the subject, and the variety of materials, lubricants, and possible applications, the previous examples, in spite of their high quality, are still not enough to

Recent highlights in nanoscale and mesoscale friction

• Andrea Vanossi,
• Dirk Dietzel,
• Andre Schirmeisen,
• Ernst Meyer,
• Rémy Pawlak,
• Thilo Glatzel,
• Marcin Kisiel,
• Shigeki Kawai and
• Nicola Manini

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1995–2014, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.190

• “Trapped optical systems: ions and colloids” reviews recent experiments and theory exploring the depinning and sliding mechanisms in analog model systems controlled by forces generated by electromagnetic fields. A successive section “Controlling friction and wear at the nanometer scale” addresses novel

• states were shown to be compatible with thermal fluctuations [126], going beyond previous conclusions based on a simpler model [127]. Simulations also investigated the role of graphene as lubricant and anti-wear agent [128][129]. An extremely low friction was demonstrated as long as load remains weak. At

• larger load graphene breaks down, the superlubric behavior is lost, and the ordinarily regime of large friction and rapid wear is recovered. Also in the context of simulations, a special “quantized” sliding-velocity regime [130][131][132][133][134] was identified and characterized by the confined solid

Cryochemical synthesis of ultrasmall, highly crystalline, nanostructured metal oxides and salts

• Elena A. Trusova and
• Nikolai S. Trutnev

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1755–1763, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.166

• important for creating fine-grained ceramics with specified structure and properties. Fine-grained ceramics need a homogenous structure to provide its unique properties of plasticity, high strength, wear-resistance, etc. [12]. We previously reported on the synthesis of nanostructured catalysts consisting of

Friction force microscopy of tribochemistry and interfacial ageing for the SiO_x/Si/Au system

• Christiane Petzold,
• Marcus Koch and
• Roland Bennewitz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1647–1658, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.157

• wear. Friction, wear, and the re-passivation by oxides are discussed based on results for the temporal development of friction forces, on images of the scanned area after friction force microscopy experiments, and on electron microscopy of the tips. Keywords: contact ageing; friction; nanotribology

• ; tribochemistry; wear; Introduction Contact ageing, the strengthening of contacts after formation, is an important phenomenon in tribology, with impact ranging from the nano-scale (NEMS and MEMS) [1][2] to the macro-scale (sliding of rock in earthquakes) [3][4]. Different microscopic mechanisms for contact

• structure [10], for which friction maxima have been predicted [11]. Friction force microscopy (FFM) is a key method to investigate the microscopic mechanisms underlying friction, wear, and lubrication as it allows for measurements of static and kinetic friction of single nanometer-scale contacts. In FFM, an

Nanoscale electrochemical response of lithium-ion cathodes: a combined study using C-AFM and SIMS

• Jonathan Op de Beeck,
• Nouha Labyedh,
• Alfonso Sepúlveda,
• Valentina Spampinato,
• Alexis Franquet,
• Thierry Conard,
• Philippe M. Vereecken,
• Wilfried Vandervorst and
• Umberto Celano

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1623–1628, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.154

• stressing at 10 V, a net drop in conductivity (or observed current) is visible (10 V box Figure 1f). Since the observed morphology hardly changes (only a small effect is visible in case of a 10 V bias), taking tip wear into account, we believe that our bias stress up to 5 V does not induce modifications to

Atomistic modeling of tribological properties of Pd and Al nanoparticles on a graphene surface

• Alexei Khomenko,
• Miroslav Zakharov,
• Denis Boyko and
• Bo N. J. Persson

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1239–1246, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.115

• wear at the atomic level [2][8][10][12][15][16][17][18][19]. Preliminarily MD studies were carried out for the formation and friction of Ag, Ni, Au, Cu nanoparticles on graphene [10][11]. This paper extends the study to Al and Pd nanoparticles [17]. Besides, in previous papers the temperature

• temperature T and the pressure P fluctuate. In terms of statistical mechanics, conventional MD yields quantities averaged over the microcanonical ensemble NVE (N is the number of molecules) [12], but experiments with a constant temperature correspond to the canonical ensemble NVT. Friction and wear phenomena

Scanning speed phenomenon in contact-resonance atomic force microscopy

• Christopher C. Glover,
• Jason P. Killgore and
• Ryan C. Tung

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 945–952, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.87

• , we have controlled for the effect of tip wear by rigorously pre-wearing the AFM tip and randomizing the order of data collection. Tip wear can significantly alter the geometry of a new AFM tip and thus the measured CR frequency. These wear effects must be accurately accounted for. It is well-known

• that the majority of tip wear happens early in the usage cycle of the microcantilever when the tip is pristine and extremely sharp [24][25]. By pre-wearing the tip, we ensure that large scale geometric evolution of the tip does not occur. Additionally, to control for the effect of wear over time, the

Tuning adhesion forces between functionalized gold colloidal nanoparticles and silicon AFM tips: role of ligands and capillary forces

• Sven Oras,
• Sergei Vlassov,
• Marta Berholts,
• Rünno Lõhmus and
• Karine Mougin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 660–670, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.61

• adhesion may result in additional energy losses and wear at the interface. When it comes to the nanoscale, high adhesion can completely prevent the fabrication or functioning of micro- and nanoelectromechanical systems (MEMS and NEMS) with movable parts. Strong adhesion is necessary for keeping different

• to take all aspects into account and give decisive explanation of the obtained results and broad scattering of measured values. Possible reasons may include deviation of NPs geometry from spherical shape, variation of the tip radii between different AFM probes, contamination and wear of the AFM tip

Review: Electrostatically actuated nanobeam-based nanoelectromechanical switches – materials solutions and operational conditions

• Liga Jasulaneca,
• Jelena Kosmaca,
• Raimonds Meija,
• Jana Andzane and
• Donats Erts

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 271–300, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.29

• lead to modification of the properties of the contacting materials. Alternatively, modifying the stiffness of the switching element can shift the jump-in and jump-off voltages and thus change the on–off hysteretic loop. Adhesion in the contact may be impacted by the surface wear occurring during

• repetitive on–off switching. An AFM-based study on the nanoscale wear of diamond-like carbon against and ultra-nanocrystalline diamond showed that the surface wear increases the size of the contact by gradually removing atoms at discrete sites and is a thermally activated stress-assisted process [79]. This

• experiment was carried out with an AFM in amplitude modulation mode complemented with molecular dynamics simulations. An exponential wear rate dependence on the peak force load was found, suggesting that lower contact forces are needed to reduce the wear rate. It should be noted that for soft materials

Material discrimination and mixture ratio estimation in nanocomposites via harmonic atomic force microscopy

• Weijie Zhang,
• Yuhang Chen,
• Xicheng Xia and
• Jiaru Chu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2771–2780, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.276

• modulation and resonance frequency in contact resonance AFM are used to extract the mechanical properties quantitatively [16][17]. However, the continuous tip–sample contact may cause severe sample damage or tip wear. In tapping mode, the tip can touch the sample periodically. Due to the nonlinear contact

Dry adhesives from carbon nanofibers grown in an open ethanol flame

• Christian Lutz,
• Julia Syurik,
• C. N. Shyam Kumar,
• Christian Kübel,
• Michael Bruns and
• Hendrik Hölscher

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2719–2728, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.271

• linear with preload force. Carbon nanofibers oriented by a magnetic field show a 68% higher adhesion (0.66 N/cm2) than the randomly oriented fibers. Endurance tests revealed that the carbon nanofiber arrays withstand 50.000 attachment/detachment cycles without observable wear. Keywords: adhesion; atomic

Exploring wear at the nanoscale with circular mode atomic force microscopy

• Olivier Noel,
• Aleksandar Vencl and
• Pierre-Emmanuel Mazeran

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2662–2668, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.266

• de Compiègne, UMR CNRS 7337, Roberval, Centre de recherche de Royallieu – CS 60 319 – 60 203 Compiègne cedex, France 10.3762/bjnano.8.266 Abstract The development of atomic force microscopy (AFM) has allowed wear mechanisms to be investigated at the nanometer scale by means of a single asperity

• contact generated by an AFM tip and an interacting surface. However, the low wear rate at the nanoscale and the thermal drift require fastidious quantitative measurements of the wear volume for determining wear laws. In this paper, we describe a new, effective, experimental methodology based on circular

• mode AFM, which generates high frequency, circular displacements of the contact. Under such conditions, the wear rate is significant and the drift of the piezoelectric actuator is limited. As a result, well-defined wear tracks are generated and an accurate computation of the wear volume is possible

Numerical investigation of the tribological performance of micro-dimple textured surfaces under hydrodynamic lubrication

• Kangmei Li,
• Dalei Jing,
• Jun Hu,
• Xiaohong Ding and
• Zhenqiang Yao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2324–2338, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.232

• simulation; hydrodynamic lubrication; micro-dimple array; surface texture; tribological performance; Introduction The wear caused by friction is considered to be the main reason for the failure of mechanical systems and the major source of energy loss [1]. Various methods have been developed to reduce

• friction and wear. One of the most promising solutions is the introduction of surface texturing on a friction pair. The benefits of surface texturing and the effects of texturing parameters on tribological performance have been experimentally and theoretically investigated over the past two decades

• properly designed surface texture acts as micro-hydrodynamic bearings on the friction pair, which help to reduce friction and increase the load-carrying capacity. In addition, the surface texturing also provides extra space to reserve lubricant and entrap wear debris. Furthermore, parametric studies were

Molecular dynamics simulations of nanoindentation and scratch in Cu grain boundaries

• Shih-Wei Liang,
• Ren-Zheng Qiu and
• Te-Hua Fang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2283–2295, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.228

• ] techniques have been used to measure the mechanical properties and wear resistance of materials with the aim to design nanoscale devices. On a microscopic level, the dislocation phenomenon of the internal material affects its structure. However, the observation of this slight change in the internal structure

• face-centered cubic (FCC) Cu atoms comprised the substrate (red and green). With the aim to exclusively study the behavior of the substrate, the indenter was considered as a rigid body (i.e., the indenter wear was not investigated). However, the substrate atoms were set to follow a Newtonian behavior

Material property analytical relations for the case of an AFM probe tapping a viscoelastic surface containing multiple characteristic times

• Enrique A. López-Guerra and
• Santiago D. Solares

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2230–2244, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.223

• damage induced by constant tip drag. Additionally, these methods are prone to significant tip wear and contamination which could make quantitative characterization unreliable due to constant changes in tip geometry. Dynamic methods have been designed to overcome the above issues, whereby tapping-mode AFM

In situ controlled rapid growth of novel high activity TiB₂/(TiB₂–TiN) hierarchical/heterostructured nanocomposites

• Jilin Wang,
• Hejie Liao,
• Yuchun Ji,
• Fei Long,
• Yunle Gu,
• Zhengguang Zou,
• Weimin Wang and
• Zhengyi Fu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2116–2125, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.211

• stability, as well as excellent electrical and thermal conductivity [4][5][6]. On the other hand, titanium nitride (TiN) has some attractive properties, such as high hardness, low electrical resistivity, excellent wear and corrosion resistance [1][2][7]. Therefore, it is expected that these unique

• properties will make TiB2/TiN composites an attractive prospect for practical applications in many fields such as super-hard materials, electrodes, wear resistance materials, armor plates, jet engine parts and high temperature ceramic components [1][3][7][8]. The previous researches were primarily focused on

A comparative study of the nanoscale and macroscale tribological attributes of alumina and stainless steel surfaces immersed in aqueous suspensions of positively or negatively charged nanodiamonds

• Colin K. Curtis,
• Antonin Marek,
• Alex I. Smirnov and
• Jacqueline Krim

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2045–2059, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.205

• conventional oil additives generally fail to improve tribological performance in aqueous environments. Numerous studies of nanoparticulate additives to oil-based systems have been reported in the literature, with many displaying significant improvements in macroscopic friction and wear rates [6]. Water-based

• here. It is notable that the changes in the QCM behavior upon immersion in +ND suspensions were very slow and gradual, in a stark contrast to the effects of the −ND suspensions. Detrimental wear at the macroscale might well out-pace any beneficial effects of ND for such liquid–solid interfaces. We note

Imidazolium-based ionic liquids used as additives in the nanolubrication of silicon surfaces

• Patrícia M. Amorim,
• Ana M. Ferraria,
• Rogério Colaço,
• Luís C. Branco and
• Benilde Saramago

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1961–1971, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.197

• tetrafluoroborate [BF4] and bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide [NTf2] mixed with propylene glycol dioleate to lubricate Al alloys. There was no impact on the friction coefficient but the wear rate was reduced significantly. The group of Liu [9][10][11][12][13] extensively investigated the role of ILs formed by

• order to understand the mechanism involved in the lubrication process. Results and Discussion Friction and wear under dry conditions For comparison purposes, a set of nanotribological tests were done under dry conditions in a nitrogen stream using substrates and counter bodies similar to those used in

• the lubricated tests, the same normal load and scanning speed. The number of cycles used was 3100. In these tests it was observed that, after a very short running in period, the friction coefficient (CoF) stabilizes at a value of 0.7. Clear wear tracks could be observed, even with unaided eye, after

Nanotribological behavior of deep cryogenically treated martensitic stainless steel

• Germán Prieto,
• Konstantinos D. Bakoglidis,
• Walter R. Tuckart and
• Esteban Broitman

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1760–1768, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.177

• , SE581 83 Linköping, Sweden 10.3762/bjnano.8.177 Abstract Cryogenic treatments are increasingly used to improve the wear resistance of various steel alloys by means of transformation of retained austenite, deformation of virgin martensite and carbide refinement. In this work the nanotribological

• nitrogen for 2 h and annealed. The elastic–plastic parameters of the materials were assessed by nanoindentation tests under displacement control, while the friction behavior and wear rate were evaluated by a nanoscratch testing methodology that it is used for the first time in steels. It was found that

• cryogenic treatments increased both hardness and elastic limit of a low-carbon martensitic stainless steel, while its tribological performance was enhanced marginally. Keywords: carbide refinement; cryogenic treatments; friction; nanoindentation; nanoscratch; wear-resistance improvement; Introduction AISI

Collembola cuticles and the three-phase line tension

• Håkon Gundersen,
• Hans Petter Leinaas and
• Christian Thaulow

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1714–1722, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.172

• scale [5]; this makes Collembola cuticle structures easily reproducible, as well as more resilient against mechanical wear [7]. While the water repellency of Collembola has long been described in general, macroscopic terms, a specific mechanical explanation has been lacking. Cassie and Baxter described