Nanoscale friction and wear mechanisms at the interface between a boron carbide film and an atomic force microscope tip

Prioli, R.; Reigada, D. C.; Freire, F. L.

doi:10.1063/1.371988

Cited by 22 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…SEM images of tips before and after force measurement indicates that changes in the tip structure can occur when being in contact with another solid surface. This agrees with results reported by various research groups who observed tip wear by SEM [212][213][214][215][216]. Tip wear was studied at different humilities by scanning an area of µm 5 5× 2 for 5, 10, and 30 min on a silicon wafer or mica with different cantilevers (type 2 and 6).…”

Section: Tip Wearsupporting

confidence: 89%

On the Adhesion between Fine Particles and Nanocontacts: An Atomic Force Microscope Study

et al. 2006

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To optimize the handling of fine powders in industrial applications, understanding the interaction forces between single powder particles is fundamental. The forces between colloidal particles dominate the behavior of a great variety of materials, including paints, paper, soil, and many industrial processes. With the invention of the atomic force microscope (AFM), the direct measurement of the interaction between single micron-sized particles became possible. The adhesional contact between a particle and a substrate is a parameter for analyzing pull-off force data generated by AFM. The aim of this study was to understand surface interactions between fine particles. I measured the adhesion forces between AFM tips or particles attached to AFM cantilevers and different solid samples. Smooth and homogeneous surfaces such as silicon wafer, mica, or highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG), and more rough and heterogeneous surfaces such as iron particles or patterns of TiO 2 nanoparticles on silicon wafer were used. First, I addressed to the wellknown issue that AFM adhesion experiment results show wide distributions of adhesion forces rather than a single value. My experimental results show that variations in adhesion forces comprise fast (i.e., from one force curves to the next) random fluctuations and slower fluctuations, which occur over tens or hundreds of consecutive measurements. Slow fluctuations are not likely to be the result of variations in external factors such as lateral position, temperature, humidity, and so forth because those were kept constant. Even if two solid bodies are brought into contact under precisely the same conditions (same place, load, direction, etc.) the result of such a measurement will often not be the same as for the previous contact. The measurement itself will induce structural changes in the contact region which can change the value for the next adhesion force measurement.In the second part I studied the influence of humidity on the adhesion of nanocontacts. Humidity was adjusted relatively fast to minimize tip wear during one experiment. For hydrophobic surfaces, no signification change of adhesion force with humidity was observed. Adhesion force-versus-humidity curves recorded with hydrophilic surfaces either showed a maximum or continuously increased. I demonstrate that the results can be interpreted with simple continuum theory of the meniscus force. The meniscus force is calculated based on a model that includes surface roughness and takes into account different AFM tip (or particle) shapes by a two-sphere-model.Experimental and theoretical results show that the precise contact geometry has a critical influence on the humidity dependence of the adhesion force.Changes of tip geometry on the sub-10-nm length scale can completely change adhesion force-versus-humidity curves. Our model can also explain the differences between earlier AFM studies, where different dependencies of the adhesion force on humidity were observed.Keywords: Atomic force microscopy (AFM), cantile...

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Section: Tip Wearsupporting

confidence: 89%

On the Adhesion between Fine Particles and Nanocontacts: An Atomic Force Microscope Study

et al. 2006

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“…This agrees with results reported by various groups who observed tip wear by scanning electron microscopy (e.g., Refs [33][34][35][36][37]). We confirmed tip wear by imaging tips before and after force experiments at varying humidity with the SEM (Fig.…”

Section: Tip Wearsupporting

confidence: 93%

Influence of Humidity on Adhesion: An Atomic Force Microscope Study

Farshchi-Tabrizi

Kappl

Butt

2008

Journal of Adhesion Science and Technology

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In this study we measured the adhesion forces between atomic force microscope (AFM) tips or particles attached to AFM cantilevers and different solid samples to investigate the influence of humidity on the adhesion of nanocontacts. Humidity was adjusted relatively fast to minimize tip wear during experiments. For hydrophobic surfaces, no significant change in adhesion force with humidity was observed. Adhesion force versus humidity curves recorded with hydrophilic surfaces either showed a maximum or continuously increased. We demonstrate that the results can be interpreted with simple continuum theory of the meniscus force. The meniscus force is calculated based on a model that includes surfaces roughness and takes into account different AFM tip (or particle) shapes by a two-sphere model. Experimental and theoretical results show that the precise contact geometry has a critical influence on the humidity dependence of the adhesion force. Changes of tip geometry on the sub-10-nm length scale can completely alter the adhesion force versus humidity curves. Our model can also explain the differences between earlier AFM studies, where different dependencies of the adhesion force on humidity were observed.  Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2008

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“…8a, we investigated the effect of the relative humidity in the range from 5% to 80% [23] and in Fig. 8b we investigated the dependence with the scanning speed in the range between 2 and 18 mm/s [22]. For BC x N y films, this dependence is not so clear, at least when we investigate the dependence with the relative humidity.…”

Section: Nanotribological Propertiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This layer can be formed as a consequence of the surface local heating due to friction. In fact, if the dissipated energy at the tip-surface interface is of the same order of the boron-boron (B-B) and the boron-carbon (B-C) bonds, then the scanning process may lead to a partial breaking of the surface atomic bonds [22]. Thus, the boron atom will interact with the atmosphere.…”

Section: Nanotribological Propertiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, despite all these efforts to overcome the high residual stress limitation of these films, the study of the nanotribological properties of B 4 C and BCN films is still very limited [21][22][23][24]. The aim of this work is to review our recent results on boron carbide (B 4 C) and boron carbon nitride films (BC x N y ) deposited by dc-magnetron sputtering.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Boron Carbide and Boron-Carbon Nitride Films Deposited by DC-Magnetron Sputtering: Structural Characterization and Nanotribological Properties

Freire

Reigada

Prioli

2001

phys. stat. sol. (a)

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The effects of nitrogen incorporation into amorphous boron carbide (B 4 C) films were studied. The films were deposited by dc-magnetron sputtering with the Si substrates at room temperature. The nitrogen incorporation occurs at the expense of the boron content. The main feature of infrared absorption spectra obtained from B 4 C films is a broad band at around 1100 cm --1 that shifts to higher wavenumbers upon nitrogen incorporation. The spectra obtained from films with higher nitrogen content are typical of hexagonal boron nitride. The friction coefficient and the surface wear were studied by lateral force microscopy. The influence of several parameters like relative humidity, scanning velocity and load force was investigated. For boron-carbon nitride films, a weak dependence on the relative humidity of wear and friction coefficients was observed. In the case of B 4 C films, there is a clear correlation between the wear depth and the energy deposited at the AFM tip-film interface.

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Nanoscale friction and wear mechanisms at the interface between a boron carbide film and an atomic force microscope tip

Cited by 22 publications

References 15 publications

On the Adhesion between Fine Particles and Nanocontacts: An Atomic Force Microscope Study

On the Adhesion between Fine Particles and Nanocontacts: An Atomic Force Microscope Study

Influence of Humidity on Adhesion: An Atomic Force Microscope Study

Boron Carbide and Boron-Carbon Nitride Films Deposited by DC-Magnetron Sputtering: Structural Characterization and Nanotribological Properties

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