Study of friction of Ag and Ni nanoparticles: an atomistic approach

TL;DR

This study uses atomistic simulations to analyze how silver and nickel nanoparticles interact with graphene, revealing how their frictional forces depend on size and metal type, advancing nanoscale tribology understanding.

Contribution

It provides a detailed atomistic analysis of metallic nanoparticle friction on graphene, highlighting differences based on metal type and size, which was lacking in prior research.

Findings

Friction force grows linearly with contact area.

Friction slopes are consistent with experimental data.

Metal type influences friction behavior and curve shape.

Abstract

Manipulation of metal nanoparticles using atomic force microscope is a promising new technique for probing tribological properties at the nanoscale. In spite of some advancements in experimental investigations, there is no unambiguous theoretical treatment of processes accompanying the movement of metallic nanoislands adsorbed on a flat surface and additional research is required. In this paper, we describe computer experiments based on classical molecular dynamics in which the behavior of silver and nickel nanoparticles interacting with a graphene sheet and sheared with constant force is studied. Frictional force acting on the nanoislands is measured as a function of their size. It is shown that its average value grows approximately linearly with contact area, and slopes of linear fits are close to the experimentally observable ones. The dependence of the friction force value and of the shape of the measured friction curves on the type of metal atom is revealed and its possible reasons originating from atomistic background are discussed.