Structural superlubricity(SSL)refers to a state where the friction and wear between two directly contacted solid surfaces are virtually zero.The realization of microscale SSL in 2012 rapidly explored SSL technologies which hold great potential in the development of reliable and energy⁃efficient micro devices.A key to a successful superlubric device is to control the movements of the superlubric slider.To solve this challenge,here two general principles are shown to guide and control the motion of the slider,i.e.,by minimization of interfacial energy and minimization of electrostatic energy.When the shapes of the slider and substrate are designed appropriately,the excess interfacial energy of the contact⁃pair provides restoring and constraining forces to the slider.Similarly,tunable driving and constraining forces are enabled by the electric fields induced by the electrodes buried in the substrate.These concepts are demonstrated on the design of a superlubric resonator whose natural frequency of the lateral translational mode is well⁃defined and unfavorable rotation is constrained.The above design principles should be applicable to superlubric devices in general and help the development of future applications of structural superlubricity.
With the development of superlubricity, the requirement for the accuracy of measuring super low friction force becomes more and more high. In this study, a novel micro-tribometer has been designed. The resolution and accuracy of friction force are 0.01 m N by using the dual frequency laser interferometer. Experiments were performed to investigate the ability of measuring friction force from different aspects. The interference signal mixed in the measured friction force curve was analyzed and can be removed by a designed filter. The results of experiment show that the tribometer is capable of measuring a super low friction force in the order of magnitude of 0.01 m N with an applied load up to 1 N.
The carbon–carbon couplings of 4,4＇＇-dibromo-p-terphenyl（DBTP） on Cu（110） surface have been investigated at a single molecular level by scanning tunneling microscopy. After annealing at 353 K, a mixture of parallel non-organometallic and organometallic intermediates of DBTP molecules along the[1–10] direction of the surface has been observed. Further annealing at 393 K causes one group of molecules to form oligomers with para-para and para-meta motifs via Ullmann reaction and the other group of molecules to synthesize oligomers with meta-meta motifs via direct carbon–carbon coupling reaction. Statistical results directly reveal that the occurrence of reaction type is strongly related to the initial binding configuration of DBTP molecules.
The performance of a lubricant largely depends on the additives it involves. However, currently used additives cause severe pollution if they are burned and exhausted. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a new generation of green additives. Graphene oxide（GO） consists of only C, H and O and thus is considered to be environmentally friendly. So the tribological properties of the few-layer GO sheet as an additive in hydrocarbon base oil are investigated systematically. It is found that, with the addition of GO sheets, both the coefficient of friction（COF） and wear are decreased and the working temperature range of the lubricant is expanded in the positive direction. Moreover, GO sheets has better performance under higher sliding speed and the optimized concentration of GO sheets is determined to be 0.5wt%. After rubbing, GO is detected on the wear scars through Raman spectroscopy. And it is believed that, during the rubbing, GO sheets adhere to the sliding surfaces, behaving like protective films and preventing the sliding surfaces from contacting with each other directly. This paper proves that the GO sheet is an effective lubricant additive, illuminates the lubrication mechanism, and provides some critical parameters for the practical application of GO sheets in lubrication.
The mechanism for the formation of double-layer vertically aligned carbon nanotube arrays(VACNTs) through single-step CVD growth is investigated. The evolution of the structures and defect concentration of the VACNTs are tracked by scanning electron microscopy(SEM) and Raman spectroscopy. During the growth, the catalyst particles are stayed constantly on the substrate. The precipitation of the second CNT layer happens at around 30 min as proved by SEM.During the growth of the first layer, catalyst nanoparticles are deactivated with the accumulation of amorphous carbon coatings on their surfaces, which leads to the termination of the growth of the first layer CNTs. Then, the catalyst particles are reactivated by the hydrogen in the gas flow, leading to the precipitation of the second CNT layer. The growth of the second CNT layer lifts the amorphous carbon coatings on catalyst particles and substrates. The release of mechanical energy by CNTs provides big enough energy to lift up amorphous carbon flakes on catalyst particles and substrates which finally stay at the interfaces of the two layers simulated by finite element analysis. This study sheds light on the termination mechanism of CNTs during CVD process.
As a basic technology, dispensing liquid into small droplets is widely used in many nowadays technologies, such as 3D printing [I-4], biological/chemical patterning [5-7], and drug discovery [8,9]. Traditional transfer methods by pipette or pin, which may date to 4000 years ago [10], are simple and cheap to generate droplets bigger than μ100 pm [11] for most materials.
The precise localization of organic molecules in controllable positions is an important step towards constructing functional nanostructures via the bottom-up strategy. Herein, supramolecularly organized C70-fullerene assemblies on macrocycle-modified surfaces were investigated using scanning tunneling microscopy （STM） in combination with theoretical calculations. The results revealed that an up-assembly of C70-fullerene adlayers was successfully formed on top of the bottom macrocycle arrays. Density functional theory （DFT） calculations confirmed that the macrocycle networks along with the co-adsorbed solvent 1-phenyloctane served as a selective template for trapping C70-fullerene molecules in the spectral sites and acted as a support for the C70-fullerene molecules. The periodical distribution of the C70-fullerene molecules should facilitate understanding of the strong dependence of the arrangement of C70-fullerene upon the specific interactions （apart from spatial recognition） derived from modification of the sub-monolayers.
