Tuning friction to a superlubric state via in-plane straining
Open accessAbstract
Controlling, and in many cases minimizing, friction is a goal that has long been pursued in history. From the classic Amontons–Coulomb law to the recent nanoscale experiments, the steady-state friction is found to be an inherent property of a sliding interface, which typically cannot be altered on demand. In this work, we show that the friction on a graphene sheet can be tuned reversibly by simple mechanical straining. In particular, by applying a tensile strain (up to 0.60%), we are able to achieve a superlubric state (coefficient of friction nearly 0.001) on a suspended graphene. Our atomistic simulations together with atomically resolved friction images reveal that the in-plane strain effectively modulates the flexibility of graphene. Consequently, the local pinning capability of the contact interface is changed, resulting in the unusual strain-dependent frictional behavior. This work demonstrates that the deformability of atomic-scale structures can provide an additional channel of regulating the friction of contact interfaces involving configurationally flexible materials.
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Cited by
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Probing the hydration friction of ionic interfaces at the atomic scale
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Zhang, S., Hou, Y., Li, S., Liu, L., Zhang, Z., Feng, X.-Q., & Li, Q.
- Affiliations
- State Key Laboratory of Tribology (CN)
- University of Science and Technology of China (CN)
- Xi'an Jiaotong University (CN)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Li, Qunyang
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2019-10-28
- Volume
- 116
- Issue
- 49
- Pages
- 24452-24456
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC6900536
- OpenAlex
- W2982706077
- Cited by
- 138
- References
- 34
- Citations by year
- 2026: 16 · 2025: 26 · 2024: 22 · 2023: 20 · 2022: 27 · 2021: 17 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 5.95
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Update notices
- correction (2020-03-16)
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (11772169, 11432008, 11832010, 11890682, 11890671)
- ational Basic Research Program of China (2015CB351903)
- National Science and Technology Major Project (2017-VI-0003-0073)
- State Key Laboratory of Tribology at Tsinghua University (SKLT2019B02)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics › Force Microscopy Techniques and Applications
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Mechanics of Materials › Adhesion, Friction, and Surface Interactions
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Materials Chemistry › Graphene research and applications
- Keywords
- superlubricity, graphene, in-plane strain, tensile strain, suspended graphene, atomic-scale friction, deformable materials, atomistic simulation
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