Journal
NATURE MATERIALS
Volume 8, Issue 11, Pages 876-881Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/NMAT2529
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Funding
- Office of Basic Energy Sciences of the DOE [DE-FG02-06ER46293]
- NSF [DMR-0120967, DMR-0706031]
- CNR under EUROCORES/FANAS/AFRI
- PRIN/COFIN
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Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are well known for their exceptional thermal, mechanical and electrical properties(1-6). For many CNT applications it is of the foremost importance to know their frictional properties. However, very little is known about the frictional forces between an individual nanotube and a substrate or tip. Here, we present a combined theoretical and experimental study of the frictional forces encountered by a nanosize tip sliding on top of a supported multiwall CNT along a direction parallel or transverse to the CNT axis. Surprisingly, we find a higher friction coefficient in the transverse direction compared with the parallel direction. This behaviour is explained by a simulation showing that transverse friction elicits a soft 'hindered rolling' of the tube and a frictional dissipation that is absent, or partially absent for chiral CNTs, when the tip slides parallel to the CNT axis. Our findings can help in developing better strategies for large-scale CNT assembling and sorting on a surface.
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