2011/08/11 by A. S. de Wijn, Astrid S. de Wijn, A. Fasolino +4
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Adhesion, Friction, and Surface Interactions #Force Microscopy Techniques and Applications #Molecular Junctions and Nanostructures #cond-mat.mes-hall
paper · pdf · doi:10.1209/0295-5075/95/66002
published as EPL 95 66002 (2011) · 5 pages, 5 figures
arxiv created 2011/08/11 · openalex publication_date 2011/08/30 · arxiv updated 2013/05/22 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Solids at incommensurate contact display low-friction, "superlubric", sliding. For graphene flakes on a graphite surface, superlubric sliding is only temporary due to rotation of the flakes from incommensurate to commensurate contact with the substrate. We examine this rotational channel of friction in a prototype geometry of meso- and macroscopic solid lubrication. By molecular-dynamics simulations and theoretical arguments we find that two surfaces lubricated by mobile, rotating graphene flakes exhibit stable superlubric sliding as for ideally incommensurate contacts also when they are covered by randomly oriented pinned graphene patches. For commensurate surfaces, we find a low-friction state at low temperature where incommensurate states are not destroyed by thermal fluctuations.