Atomistic simulations of the sliding friction of graphene flakes

Abstract

Using a tight-binding atomistic simulation, we simulate the recent atomic-force microscopy experiments probing the slipperiness of graphene flakes made slide against a graphite surface. Compared to previous theoretical models, where the flake was assumed to be geometrically perfect and rigid, while the substrate is represented by a static periodic potential, our fully-atomistic model includes quantum mechanics with the chemistry of bond breaking and bond formation, and the flexibility of the flake. These realistic features, include in particular the crucial role of the flake rotation in determining the static friction, in qualitative agreement with experimental observations.

10 pages

References in corpus (4)

• Self-passivating edge reconstructions of graphene
• Nonlinear elasticity of monolayer graphene
• Exactly quantized dynamics of classical incommensurate sliders
• Momentum entanglement and disentanglement between atom and photon

Cited by in corpus (15)

• Superlubric to stick-slip sliding of incommensurate graphene flakes on graphite
• Superlubricity - a new perspective on an established paradigm
• Fast diffusion of graphene flake on graphene layer
• Surface passivation by graphene in the lubrication of iron: A comparison with bronze
• Atomic-scale defects restricting structural superlubricity: Ab initio study study on the example of the twisted graphene bilayer
• Graphene nanoribbons subject to gentle bends
• Current trends in the physics of nanoscale friction
• Non-Eulerian behavior of graphitic materials under compression
• Frictionless nanohighways on crystalline surfaces
• Crystalline misfit-angle implications for solid sliding
• Emerging chirality and moiré dynamics in twisted layered material heterostructures
• Interlayer interaction, shear vibrational mode, and tribological properties of two-dimensional bilayers with a commensurate moiré pattern
• Thermal formation of carbynes
• Restriction of macroscopic structural superlubricity due to structure relaxation by the example of twisted graphene bilayer
• Robust structural superlubricity of twisted graphene bilayer and domain walls between commensurate moiré pattern domains from first-principles calculations