Mesoscale reverse stick-slip nanofriction behavior of vertically aligned multiwalled carbon nanotube superlattices

Abstract

Characteristics of sliding friction behaviors of vertically aligned multiwalled carbon nanotube (CNT) superlattices have been investigated in this letter. Friction force was measured using both regular atomic force microscopy (AFM) probe and colloidal AFM probe consisting of a 15 mu m diameter borosilicate sphere attached to the end of regular cantilever. A distinct reverse stick-slip behavior was observed in the current study compared to the usual stick-slip behavior reported in literature. It was found that this reverse stick-slip behavior was primarily due to the combined effects of surface topology and elastic deformation of CNTs, which were verified by experiments and atomistic simulations.