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

摘要 CTS-9871919卡明斯 这是一个赠款进行润滑的基础研究在压力计规模，包括实验与表面流变和非平衡分子动力学模拟。 该项目将是一个多学科、多机构的合作。研究的第一个目标是实现相同系统的实验和模拟之间的剪切速率重叠。这种重叠，寻求了十多年，将通过显着的进步，在实验和数值方法的能力来实现。 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性，包括具有化学和地形异质性的表面，这是主要的技术重要性。 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。 这项工作的最终但总体目标是寻求新的方法来减少仅由纳米分离的移动表面的摩擦和磨损。 这些目标将通过协调的实验和计算来实现，这些实验和计算将在分子水平上探测所涉及的基本现象。 这项工作的动机是，移动部件之间仅相隔纳米的设备已经具有巨大的技术和经济重要性，例如计算机磁盘驱动器等磁记录设备。 许多其他新颖的微机电系统（MEMS），如微电机，正在开发中。 在这种装置中的移动表面之间的流体受到极高速率的剪切应变，108 s-1或更高，比以前在任何受控实验中获得的高一个数量级以上。 通常，润滑对于这些设备的实际使用是必不可少的，并且美国数据存储行业已经将新润滑剂和表面光洁度的开发确定为实现增加的记录密度和读/写速度的六个主要技术目标之一。 该项目是根据NSF 98-20纳米技术合作伙伴关系：功能纳米结构的合成，加工和利用（FNS）提交的提案而完成的。

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).