Abstract
The friction between a molybdenum disulphide (MoS2) nanoflake and a MoS2 substrate was analyzed using a modified Tomlinson model based on atomistic force fields. The calculations performed in the study suggest that large deformations in the substrate can induce a dramatic decrease in the friction between the nanoflake and the substrate to produce the so-called superlubricity. The coefficient of friction decreases by 1–4 orders of magnitude when a high strain exceeding 0.1 is applied. This friction reduction is strongly anisotropic. For example, the reduction is most pronounced in the compressive regime when the nanoflake slides along the zigzag crystalline direction of the substrate. In other sliding directions, the coefficient of friction will reduce to its lowest value either when a high tensile strain is applied along the zigzag direction or when a high compressive strain is applied along the armchair direction. This anisotropy is correlated with the atomic configurations of MoS2.
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Acknowledgements
Partial financial supports from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 11964002), the Guangxi Science Foundation (No. 2018GXNSFAA138179), and the Scientific Research Foundation of Guangxi University (No. XTZ160532) are acknowledged.
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Shengcong WU. He received his bachelor degree in applied physics in 2017 from Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang, China. Then, he was a master student in the Guangxi Key Laboratory for Relativistic Astrophysics at Guangxi University. He has recently obtained his master degree in Department of Physics at Guangxi University. His research interests include structural superlubricity of nanomaterials.
Zhao WANG. He received his Ph.D. degree in physics at the University of Besancon in France. He has been working at EMPA in Thun (Switzerland) and CEA in Grenoble (France) as a postdoc after graduation. He came back to China in 2011, for working at Xi’an Jiaotong University. He joined Guangxi University since 2016 as a professor. His research concentrates on molecular physics, as well as on mechanical and thermal transport properties of nanoscale interfaces.
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Wu, S., Meng, Z., Tao, X. et al. Superlubricity of molybdenum disulfide subjected to large compressive strains. Friction 10, 209–216 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40544-020-0418-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40544-020-0418-8