Fundamental investigation of the friction-structure interplay in sliding contacts

• Applicant: Dr. Claudia Ritter
• Subject Area: Physical Chemistry of Solids and Surfaces, Material Characterisation
• Term: from 2006 to 2010
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 33854368

Frictional forces are omnipresent in daily life; their understanding is important for the optimization of machinery with parts in relative motion. Moreover, a considerable percentage of the world’s gross national product is lost due to friction and wear. From this background, it is surprising that a detailed microscopic or even atomic-scale description of friction that would allow a specific, optimized tailoring of tribological surfaces for a given application based on atomic-scale principles is still missing. In particular, the interplay between friction, adhesion, “true” contact area, and crystalline structure at the interface is topic of current debate. The immediate goals of the planned project are on the one hand to study the dependence of friction on the real contact area on the nanometer scale and, on the other hand, to gain further confirmation for the influence of the internal structure of nanoparticles on their frictional properties. Therefore, we will directly measure the frictional forces during the sliding of different nanoparticles on a suitable substrate surface by means of a scanning probe microscope. This experimental approach allows us to measure• the frictional forces as a function of the true contact area,• the interface structure, and• the internal structure of the particles.

• DFG Programme: Research Fellowships
• International Connection: USA
• Host: Professor Dr. Udo Schwarz