Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T21:22:01.768Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Use of the Atomic Force Microscope to Study Mechanical Properties of Lubricant Layers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2013

Miquel B. Salmeron
Get access

Extract

Advances in our understanding of the phenomena of adhesion, friction, and lubrication are facilitated by the recent development of new tools that allow the study of contacts in close-to-ideal conditions. These new tools are the surface force spparatus (SFA) and the atomic force microscope (AFM). The first was developed by Israelachvili in the 1970s. In this device, contact between two atomically flat surfaces of mica occurs over an area of several micrometers in diameter after the mica sheets, glued onto two perpendicular cylindrical lenses, are compressed. Force, area of contact, and separation distance can be controlled at the atomic scale. The second device, the AFM, was developed by Binnig et al. in 1986. The sharp tip of the AFM is a convenient idealization of a single asperity. In addition, the AFM can be used to image the surface in the weak repulsive or in the attractive modes so that minimum perturbation is introduced by the imaging process itself. These two devices have the necessary sensitivity to allow the application of forces weak enough not to dislodge atoms from their sites during contact. The order of magnitude of the force that can lead to the rupture of chemical bonds is a convenient figure to keep in mind in this context. A simple estimate of this force is obtained by considering a bond-length increase of 1 Å as leading to dissociation. For a bond energy of ≈1 eV, Fb ≈ 1 eV/1 Å ≈ 1 × 10−9 N.

Type
Nanotribology
Information
MRS Bulletin , Volume 18 , Issue 5 , May 1993 , pp. 20 - 25
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1.Israelachvili, J.N., in Intermolecular and Surface Forces (Academic Press, London, 1985).Google Scholar
2.Binnig, G., Quate, C.F., and Gerber, C., Phys. Rev. Letters 56 (1986) p. 930.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3.Erlandsson, R., Hadziioannou, G., Mate, C.M., McClelland, G.M., and Chiang, S., J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 6 (1988) p. 266.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
4.Rugar, D., Mamin, H.J., Erlandsson, R., Stern, J.E., and Terris, B.D., Rev. Sci. Instr. 59 (1988) p. 2337.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
5.Meyer, G. and Amer, N.M., Appl. Phys. Lett. 5 (1988) p. 1045.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
6.Alexander, S., Hellemans, L., Marti, O., Shneir, J., Elings, V., Hansma, P.K., Longmire, M., and Gurley, J., J. Appl. Phys. 65 (1989) p. 164.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
7.Marti, O., Colchero, J., and Mlynek, J., Nanotechnol., in press.Google Scholar
8.Durig, U., Gimzewski, J.K., and Pohl, D.W., Phys. Rev. Lett. 57 (1986) p. 2403.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
9.Salmeron, M., Folch, A., Neubauer, G., Tomitori, M., Ogletree, D.F., and Kolbe, W., Langmuir 8 (1992) p. 2832.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
10.Salmeron, M., Folch, A., Neubauer, G., Tomitori, M., and Ogletree, D.F., Langmuir, submitted.Google Scholar
11.Joyce, S.A., Thomas, R.C., Houston, J.E., Michalske, T.A., and Crooks, R.M., Phys. Rev. Lett. 68 (1992) p. 2790.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
12.Siepmann, J.I. and McDonald, I.R., Phys. Rev. Lett. 70 (1993) p. 453.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
13.Timoshenko, S.P. and Goodier, J.N., Theory of Elasticity, (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1970).Google Scholar