2007/02/28 by Stoyan Pisov, Erio Tosatti, U. Tartaglino +2
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Material Dynamics and Properties #Theoretical and Computational Physics #cond-mat.mtrl-sci #nanoparticles nucleation surface interactions
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/0953-8984/19/30/305015
published as J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 19 (2007) 305015 · 5 pages, 3 figures. Published. Minimal changes with respect to the previous version
openalex publication_date 2007/07/13 · arxiv created 2007/07/14 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
A large measured two-dimensional (2D) diffusion coefficient of gold nanoclusters on graphite has been known experimentally and theoretically for about a decade. When subjected to a lateral force, these clusters should slide with an amount of friction that can be measured. We examine the hypothetical possibility of measuring by quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) the phononic sliding friction of gold clusters in the size range around 250 atoms on a graphite substrate between 300 and 600 K. Assuming the validity of Einstein's relations of ordinary Brownian motion and making use of the experimentally available activated behaviour of the diffusion coefficients, we can predict the sliding friction and slip times as a function of temperature. It is found that a prototypical deposited gold cluster could yield slip times at the standard measurable size of 10 −9 s for temperatures around 450–500 K, or 200 °C. Since gold nanoclusters may also melt at around these temperatures, QCM could offer the additional chance of observing this phenomenon through a frictional change.