Superlubrication is a phenomenon where friction between two materials almost disappears due to crystal lattice misalignment. It occurs in a dry environment and could reduce energy loss and material boundaries, but nanoscale engineering is required. It is not related to superconductivity or superfluidity.
Superlubrication is a special material phenomenon where the friction between two materials drops close to zero. True zero friction is not thermodynamically permissible, but superlubrication comes close. This superlubrication phenomenon occurs when two surfaces have crystal lattices that are in immeasurable contact, meaning that the crystalline arrangement is such that only a small minority of the atoms on the surface contact the opposing surface, generating an extremely high amount of friction. small.
So far, superlubricity has been observed most prominently with graphite, although it has also been observed briefly between mica sheets or between a tungsten needle and a silicon or graphite surface. Superlubricity was discovered when physicists studied, with very high precision, the force of friction between crystalline surfaces. When there is a “lattice misalignment” between two of these surfaces, the friction can all but disappear. This lattice mismatch is achieved by simply playing with the orientation of the crystal layers relative to each other.
Superlubrication is attractive because it occurs in a dry environment – two crystal faces – rather than the wet environment normally associated with lubricants. In a conventional lubricant, the churning action between the lubricant molecules and adjacent surfaces actually produces some friction, causing heat, energy loss and material boundaries. In precisely engineered superlubricating surfaces, this marginal energy loss would virtually vanish, making new types of engineering possible. Unfortunately, nanoscale engineering may be required to ensure the correct orientation and stability of crystal lattices, something outside the manufacturing range of today.
Superlubricity was coined in relation to the qualities of superconductivity and superfluidity, although it bears no real resemblance to these. Superlubricity and its study is a relatively recent field, bred in 1991 but little studied in the meantime. In superconductivity, electricity flows without resistance and in superfluidity, a fluid flows without resistance (friction). Although superfluids are frictionless, similar to superlubricants, the underlying physical mechanism is fundamentally different.
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