Abstract
THE use of lubricants to reduce friction and wear between rubbing surfaces has been documented since antiquity1–3. Recent approaches have focused on boundary lubrication by surfactant-like species coating the surfaces, whereby the friction between them is replaced by the weaker forces required for shear of adhesive contacts between the surfactant layers3,4. An alternative approach is to tether polymer chains to the surfaces by one end which, when swollen by a solvent, then act as molecular ‘brushes’ that may facilitate sliding. The normal forces between sliding brush-bearing surfaces have been previously investigated5,6, but the lateral forces, which are the most important from the point of view of lubrication, are harder to measure. Here we report the measurement of lateral forces in such a system. We find a striking reduction in the effective friction coefficients μb between the surfaces to below our detection limit (μb < 0.001), for contact pressures of around 1 MPa and sliding velocities from zero to 450 nm s−1. We believe that this effect is due to the long-ranged repulsion, of entropic origin, between the brushes, which acts to keep the surfaces apart while maintaining a relatively fluid layer at the interface between them.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Tabor, D. Friction (Doubleday, New York, 1973).
Dowson, D. History of Tribology (Longmans, London, 1979).
Singer, I. L. & Pollock, H. M. (eds) Fundamentals of Friction: Microscopic and Macroscopic Processes (Kluwer, Dordrecht, 1992).
Tabor, D. in Microscopic aspects of adhesion and lubrication (ed. Georges, J. M.) 651–682 (Elsevier, New York, 1982).
Klein, J., Perahia, D. & Warburg, S. Nature 352, 143–145 (1991).
Klein, J. Pure appl. Chem. 64, 1577–1584 (1992).
Christenson, H. K. J. chem. Phys. 78, 6906–6913 (1983).
Gee, M. L., McGuiggan, P. M., Israelachvili, J. N. & Homola, A. M. J. chem. Phys. 93, 1895–1906 (1990).
Taunton, H. J., Toprakcioglu, C., Fetters, L. J. & Klein, J. Macromolecules 23, 571–580 (1990).
Alexander, S. J. Phys. Paris 38, 983–989 (1977).
de Gennes, P. G. Adv. Colloid Interface Sci. 27, 189–207 (1987).
Halperin, A., Tirrell, M. & Lodge, T. Adv. Polymer Sci. 100, 31–96 (1991).
Flory, P. J. Principles of Polymer Chemistry (Cornell Univ. Press, Ithaca, 1953).
de Gennes, P. G. in Scaling Concepts in Polymer Physics (Cornell Univ. Press, Ithaca, 1975).
Witten, T., Leibler, L. & Pincus, P. Macromolecules 23, 824–830 (1990).
Joanny, J.-F. Langmuir 8, 989–995 (1992).
Jackson, C. L. & McKenna, G. B. J. non-cryst. Solids 131–133, 221–224 (1991).
Graessley, W. W., Hazleton, R. L. & Lindeman, L. R. Trans. Soc. Rheology 11, 267–285 (1967).
Utracki, L. A. & Roovers, J. E. L. Macromolecules 6, 366–372 (1973).
Bowden, F. P. & Tabor, D. The Friction and Lubrication of Solids (Clarendon, Oxford, 1950).
McCutchen, C. W. Nature 184, 1284–1286 (1959).
Maroudas, A. in Lubrication and Wear in Joints (ed. Wright, V.) Ch. 14. (Sector, London, 1969).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Klein, J., Kumacheva, E., Mahalu, D. et al. Reduction of frictional forces between solid surfaces bearing polymer brushes. Nature 370, 634–636 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1038/370634a0
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/370634a0
This article is cited by
-
A review of recent advances in the effects of surface and interface properties on marine propellers
Friction (2024)
-
Graphene superlubricity: A review
Friction (2023)
-
An overview of functional biolubricants
Friction (2023)
-
Adjustable superlubricity system using polyalkylene glycol with various acid aqueous solutions
Friction (2023)
-
Liquid-like polymer lubricating surfaces: Mechanism and applications
Nano Research (2023)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.