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Absolute quantitative data from atomic force microscopy (AFM)/lateral force microscopy experiments are always difficult to obtain mainly due to the need of the normal force FN and the friction force FF calibration. In this article, we developed an experimental method which allows us to extract absolute quantitative friction data without calibrating any force when the relation between FN and FF is linear or only calibrating the normal force when the relationship is nonlinear. The technique reported here, is suitable for an atomic force microscope that has the cantilever attached to the piezotube translator and an unguided incident laser beam on the cantilever. We take advantage of the piezotube bending during a large scan (5 μm×5 μm), generally considered as an undesirable effect, to calculate a detection factor that allows the determination of quantitative tribological data. The validity of our experimental method is checked on the extensively AFM studied materials, such as muscovite, silicon, and highly oriented pyrolytic graphite. The experiments are carried out in a load range where the shear stress τ can be expressed as τ=τ0+μP, where μ is the friction coefficient, P is the mean contact pressure, and τ0 is a parameter related to the tip/sample adhesion. The value of μ is found to be independent of the tip geometry and the pull-off force, and always constant for a given tip/sample couple in the load range investigated.

Lubrication strategies developed long time ago employed amphiphilic molecular lubricant additives to confer to lubricating oils or greases specific properties such as friction reduction, antiwear, anticorrosion. The understanding of their action and the development of various type of nanoparticles are at the origin of new lubrication strategies using composite or functionalized nanoparticles in dispersion in lubricating oils or greases to confer to the lubricants the needed functions. The present work is concerned with the presentation of these new approaches. Some examples will be developed to show the main aspects of the mechanisms of action of these new nano-additives.

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