NANOSCALE EFFECTS OF SURFACES AND LUBRICANTS ON FRICTION

Nanoscale frictional phenomena at solid–solid surfaces with lubricants are studied numerically using a lattice model which consists of two rigid substrates and a monolayer of lubricant molecules. The maximum static frictional force, which works on the driven upper solid, is always finite and obeys a certain scaling relation. The lubricant layer, however, shows a kind of phase transition from a pinned state to free sliding state when the strength of the interaction potential with the substrates decreases. We discuss the peculiar pinning mechanism of the upper substrate in the presence of a lubricant monolayer.