Nanotechnology with Emphasis on Tribology: A Combined Experimental and Simulation Study

CTS-9871919 Cummings这是一项在压力计尺度上进行润滑基础研究的资助，包括表面流变学和非平衡分子动力学模拟实验。该项目将是一个多学科、多机构合作的项目。研究的第一个目标是在同一系统下实现实验和模拟剪切速率的重叠。十多年来寻求的这种重叠将通过实验和数值方法能力的重大进步来实现。第二个目标是将实验和计算工作扩展到更复杂的系统和表面特征，包括具有化学和地形异质性的表面，这是主要技术重要性。第三个目标是不仅研究纳米摩擦学系统的稳态剪切响应，而且研究其瞬态行为，包括与粘附相关的技术重要问题。这项工作的最终目标是寻找新的方法来减少只有纳米距离的运动表面的摩擦和磨损。这些目标将通过协调实验和计算来实现，这些实验和计算将在分子水平上探索涉及的基本现象。这项工作的动机是，运动部件之间仅相距纳米的设备已经具有巨大的技术和经济重要性，例如，像计算机磁盘驱动器这样的磁性记录设备。许多其他新型微机电系统（MEMS），如微电机，正在开发中。在这种装置中，运动表面之间的流体承受极高的剪切应变速率，108s -1或更高，比以前在任何控制实验中获得的高一个数量级。通常，润滑对于此类设备的实际使用至关重要，美国数据存储行业已经将新型润滑剂和表面光洁度的开发确定为实现更高的记录密度和读写速度的六大技术目标之一。该项目是根据NSF 98-20纳米技术伙伴关系：功能纳米结构（FNS）的合成、加工和利用而提交的提案。

Abstract CTS-9871919 Cummings This is a grant to undertake a fundamental study of lubrication at manometer scale, including experiments with surface rheometry and non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulation. The project will be a multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional collaboration. The first goal of the research is to achieve overlap in shear rate between experiments and simulations with the same systems. This overlap, sought for over a decade, will be achieved through significant advances in the capabilities of both the experimental and numerical approaches. A second goal is to extend both the experimental and computational efforts to more complicated systems and surface characteristics, including surfaces with chemical and topographical heterogeneity, that are of primary technological importance. A third goal is to study not only the steady-state shear response of nano-tribology systems but also their transient behavior, including the technologically important issues related to adhesion. A final, but overarching, goal of the work is to seek new methods to reduce the friction and wear of moving surfaces separated by only nanometers. These goals will be attained through coordinated experiments and calculations that probe the fundamental phenomena involved at a molecular level. The motivation for this work is that devices with moving parts separated by only nanometers are already of immense technological and economic importance, magnetic recording devices such as computer disk drives, for example. Many other novel micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), such as micro-motors, are under development. The fluid between the moving surfaces in such devices is subjected to extremely high rates of shear strain, 108 s-1 or higher, more than an order of magnitude higher than previously attained in any controlled experiment. Often, lubrication is essential to the practical use of such devices, and the US data storage industry has identified the development of new lubricants and surf ace finish as one of six major technical objectives to achieving increased recording density and read/write speed. This project results from a proposal submitted in response to NSF 98-20 Partnership in Nanotechnology: Synthesis, Processing and Utilization of Functional Nanostructures (FNS).