Law of Friction Can Now Make an Interfacial Shear That Minimizes Energy Loss

A basic friction rule that was found by researchers at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering is helping to build two-dimensional materials that can minimize energy loss.

Numerous of today's most cutting-edge technologies were created and developed using friction; yet, despite many advancements in the area, friction's fundamental rules are still unknown.

Phys.org said Da Vinci's law, which states that frictional forces are proportionate to the applied load, was really just recently understood by scientists using advancements in nanotechnology.

Elisa Riedo, an associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, and postdoctoral fellow Martin Rejhon have discovered a novel technique for determining the interfacial shear between two atomic layers. Additionally, they discovered proof of a novel rule that suggests this number is inversely related to friction.

Behind The Scenes At CERN The World's Largest Particle Physics Laboratory — MEYRIN, SWITZERLAND - APRIL 19: A general view of the ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) cavern and detector during a behind the scenes tour at CERN, the World's Largest Particle Physics Laboratory on April 19, 2017 in Meyrin, Switzerland. ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) is a heavy-ion detector on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) ring. It is designed to study the physics of strongly interacting matter at extreme energy densities, where a phase of matter called quark-gluon plasma forms. The ALICE detectors weighs 10,000-tonne and is 26 m long, 16 m high, and 16 m wide. It sits in a vast cavern 56 m below ground close to the village of St Genis-Pouilly in France. Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images

New Law of Friction Discovered

The researchers examined bulk graphite and epitaxial graphene films and evaluated the challenging interfacial transverse shear modulus of an atomic layer on a substrate to find the new law.

The findings of the study revealed that the stacking order and the atomic layer-substrate interaction have a significant role in controlling the modulus, which is a measurement of a material's capacity to withstand shear deformations and maintain rigidity.

In supported two-dimensional materials, sliding friction must be controlled and predicted using this modulus. The researchers discovered a broad reciprocal link between interfacial shear modulus and friction force per unit contact area.

"The interaction between a single atomic layer of a material and its substrate govern its electronic, mechanical, and chemical properties," Riedo explained in a statement.

"So gaining insight into that topic is important, on both fundamental and technological levels, in finding ways to reduce the energy loss caused by friction," Riedo added.

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Promising Results Seen

They found that the modulus, a measurement of the material's ability to resist shear deformations and remain rigid, is significantly influenced by these factors and that the stacking order and the atomic layer-substrate interaction have a significant impact in controlling and predicting sliding friction in supported two-dimensional materials.

Their research found a consistent reciprocal relationship between interfacial shear modulus and friction force per unit contact area for all the graphite structures they examined.

According to Riedo, the findings also apply to other 2D materials.

This offers a method to regulate atomic sliding friction and other interfacial phenomena, which may find use in small-scale mechanical systems, the transportation sector, and other areas.

Their paper "Relation between interfacial shear and friction force in 2D materials" was published online in Nature Nanotechnology.