Friction in the nano-world
Whether in vehicle transmissions, hip replacements, or tiny
sensors for triggering airbags: The respective components must slide against
each other with minimum friction to prevent loss of energy and material wear.
Investigating the friction behavior of nanosystems, scientists from the
Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) have discovered a previously unknown
type of friction that sheds new light on some previously unexplainable
phenomena.
Friction is an omnipresent but often annoying physical
phänomenon: It causes wear and energy loss in machines as well as in our
joints. In search of low-friction components for ever smaller components, a
team of physicists led by the professors Thorsten Hugel and Alexander
Holleitner now discovered a previously unknown type of friction that they call
“desorption stick.”