Switchable friction enabled by nanoscale self-assembly on graphene
- Stanford Univ., CA (United States). Dept. of Physics
- Duke Univ., Durham, NC (United States). Dept. of Physics; Appalachian State Univ., Boone, NC (United States)
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Center for Nanophase Materials Science (CNMS)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China). Inst. of Physics
- National Inst. for Materials Science (NIMS), Tsukuba (Japan)
Graphene monolayers are known to display domains of anisotropic friction with twofold symmetry and anisotropy exceeding 200%. This anisotropy has been thought to originate from periodic nanoscale ripples in the graphene sheet, which enhance puckering around a sliding asperity to a degree determined by the sliding direction. Here we demonstrate that these frictional domains derive not from structural features in the graphene but from self-assembly of environmental adsorbates into a highly regular superlattice of stripes with period 4-6 nm. The stripes and resulting frictional domains appear on monolayer and multilayer graphene on a variety of substrates, as well as on exfoliated flakes of hexagonal boron nitride. We show that the stripe-superlattices can be reproducibly and reversibly manipulated with submicrometre precision using a scanning probe microscope, allowing us to create arbitrary arrangements of frictional domains within a single flake. Ultimately, our results suggest a revised understanding of the anisotropic friction observed on graphene and bulk graphite in terms of adsorbates.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE; US Air Force Office of Science Research (AFOSR); National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC); US Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR); National Science Foundation (NSF); National Basic Research Program of China; Chinese Academy of Sciences; Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- FA9550-12-1-02520; PHY-0830228; 2013CB934500; 61325021; 25106006; 91223204; 262480621; AC05-00OR22725; XDB07010100
- OSTI ID:
- 1259670
- Alternate ID(s):
- OSTI ID: 1325467
- Journal Information:
- Nature Communications, Vol. 7; ISSN 2041-1723
- Publisher:
- Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Web of Science
Similar Records
Correlation between micrometer-scale ripple alignment and atomic-scale crystallographic orientation of monolayer graphene
Nano-electromechanical rotation of graphene and giant enhancement in dielectric anisotropy in a liquid crystal