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Anomalous Friction in Suspended Graphene

Published

Author(s)

Alexander Y. Smolyanitsky, Jason P. Killgore

Abstract

Since the discovery of the Amonton's law and with support of modern tribological models, friction between surfaces of three-dimensional materials is known to generally increase when the surfaces are in closer contact. Here, using molecular dynamics simulations of friction force microscopy on suspended graphene, we demonstrate an increase of  friction when the scanning tip is retracted away from the sample. We explain the observed behavior and address why this phenomenon has not been observed for isotropic 3D materials.
Citation
Nature Materials
Volume
86

Keywords

nanotribology, graphene, friction, molecular dynamics, simulation, anomalous friction, viscoelastic ploughing

Citation

Smolyanitsky, A. and Killgore, J. (2012), Anomalous Friction in Suspended Graphene, Nature Materials, [online], https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.86.125432 (Accessed October 13, 2025)

Issues

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Created September 20, 2012, Updated November 10, 2018
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