Nature of Dynamic Friction in a Humid Hydrophobic Nanocontact.

The physics of dynamic friction on water molecule contaminated surfaces is still poorly understood. In line with the growing interest in hydrophobic contact for industrial applications, this paper focuses on friction mechanisms in such interfaces. As a commonly used material, contact with graphite is considered in a twin-fold approach based on experimental investigations using the circular mode atomic force microscopy technique combined with molecular dynamic simulations. We demonstrate that an intuitive paradigm, which asserts that water molecules are squeezed out of a hydrophobic contact, should be refined. As a consequence, we introduce a mechanism considering a droplet produced within the sliding nanocontact by the accumulation of water adsorbed on the substrate. Then we show that a full slip regime of the droplet sliding on the hydrophobic substrate explains the experimental tribological behavior.

Ultrasound-Assisted Liquid-Phase Synthesis and Mechanical Properties of Aluminum Matrix Nanocomposites Incorporating Boride Nanocrystals.

Incorporating boride nanocrystals could significantly impact the mechanical properties of aluminum alloys. Molten salts synthesis offers opportunities to fabricate superhard boride nanoparticles, which can sustain the harsh conditions during the liquid-phase design of metallic nanocomposites. Here hafnium diboride-aluminum nanocomposites are unveiled from molten salt-derived HfB2 nanoparticles sequentially dispersed in aluminum by ultrasound treatment. The structure and size of the nanocrystals are retained in the final nanocomposites, supporting their high chemical stability. Semicoherent interfaces between the nanoparticles and the matrix are then evidenced by TEM, suggesting that the nanocrystals could promote heterogeneous nucleation of Al and then limit the Al grain size to ≈20 µm. Nanoindentation measurements reveal significant grain boundary strengthening and grain refinement effects. It is finally shown that HfB2 nanoparticles also enable a decrease in matrix grain size and an increase in the hardness of the AlSi7 Cu0.5 Mg0.3 alloy. These proof-of-concept materials are paving the way to light-weight Al matrix nanocomposites doped by molten-salt synthesized nanoparticles.

Photoinitiating Systems Based on Anthraquinone Derivatives: Synthesis of Antifouling and Biocide Coatings.

Photoinitiating systems combining 2,6-diaminoanthraquinone (AQD), iodonium salt (Iod), and benzyl alcohol derivatives have been developed to efficiently initiate the cationic polymerization of epoxy monomers upon light exposure. Electron spin resonance spin-trapping (ESR ST) experiments, fluorescence investigations, and steady-state photolysis have demonstrated that a dye-sensitized reaction occurs between AQD and the benzyl alcohol derivatives through a hydrogen abstraction mechanism upon light illumination, followed by reduction of Iod. The in situ liberation of protic acids promotes the cationic photopolymerization of epoxy monomers concomitantly with hydrolysis and condensation of the reactive methoxysilanes of an organic-inorganic precursor, for example, 3-glycidyloxypropyltrimethoxysilane (GPTMS). Nanoindentation experiments and scratch resistance tests proved that the resulting GPTMS coatings exhibit very good resistance to brittle fracture and excellent adherence to stainless-steel substrates. Interestingly, antibacterial tests of the GPTMS coatings showed efficient antifouling and biocide properties against E. coli and S. aureus.

Exploring wear at the nanoscale with circular mode atomic force microscopy.

The development of atomic force microscopy (AFM) has allowed wear mechanisms to be investigated at the nanometer scale by means of a single asperity contact generated by an AFM tip and an interacting surface. However, the low wear rate at the nanoscale and the thermal drift require fastidious quantitative measurements of the wear volume for determining wear laws. In this paper, we describe a new, effective, experimental methodology based on circular mode AFM, which generates high frequency, circular displacements of the contact. Under such conditions, the wear rate is significant and the drift of the piezoelectric actuator is limited. As a result, well-defined wear tracks are generated and an accurate computation of the wear volume is possible. Finally, we describe the advantages of this method and we report a relevant application example addressing a Cu/Al2O3 nanocomposite material used in industrial applications.

Photoinduced development of antibacterial materials derived from isosorbide moiety.

A straightforward method for immobilizing in situ generated silver nanoparticles on the surface of a photoactivable isosorbide-derived monomer is developed with the objective to design a functional material having antibacterial properties. The photoinduced thiol-ene mechanism involved in these syntheses is described by the electron spin resonance/spin trapping technique. The resulting materials with or without silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) were used as films or as coatings on glass substrate. The surface of the synthesized materials was characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy, and their thermal and mechanical properties were evaluated by dynamic-mechanical thermal tests, differential scanning calorimetry, thermogravimetric analyses, along with pencil hardness, nanoindentation, and scratch resistance tests. The photoinduced formation of Ag NPs is also confirmed by UV spectrophotometry. Finally, a primary investigation demonstrates the antibacterial properties of the isosorbide-derived material against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli, as well as its cytocompatibility toward NIH 3T3 fibroblastic cells.

Effect of surface roughness in the determination of the mechanical properties of material using nanoindentation test.

A quantitative model is proposed for the estimation of macro-hardness using nanoindentation tests. It decreases the effect of errors related to the non-reproducibility of the nanoindentation test on calculations of macro-hardness by taking into account the indentation size effect and the surface roughness. The most innovative feature of this model is the simultaneous statistical treatment of all the nanoindentation loading curves. The curve treatment mainly corrects errors in the zero depth determination by correlating their positions through the use of a relative reference. First, the experimental loading curves are described using the Bernhardt law. The fitted curves are then shifted, in order to simultaneously reduce the gaps between them that result from the scatter in the experimental curves. A set of shift depths, Δhc , is therefore identified. The proposed approach is applied to a large set of TiAl6V4 titanium-based samples with different roughness levels, polished by eleven silicon carbide sandpapers from grit paper 80 to 4,000. The result reveals that the scatter degree of the indentation curves is higher when the surface is rougher. The standard deviation of the shift Δhc is linearly connected to the standard deviation of the surface roughness, if the roughness is high-pass filtered in the scale of the indenter (15 µm). Using the proposed method, the estimated macro-hardness for eleven studied TiAl6V4 samples is in the range of 3.5-4.1 GPa, with the smallest deviation around 0.01 GPa, which is more accurate than the one given by the Nanoindentation MTS™ system, which uses an average value (around 4.3 ± 0.5 GPa). Moreover, the calculated Young's modulus of the material is around 136 ± 20 GPa, which is similar to the modulus in literature.

Sliding velocity dependence of adhesion in a nanometer-sized contact.

The influence of sliding velocity on the adhesion force in a nanometer-sized contact was investigated with a novel atomic force microscope experimental setup that allows measuring adhesion forces while the probe is sliding at continuous and constant velocities. For hydrophobic surfaces, the adhesion forces (mainly van der Waals forces) remain constant, whereas for hydrophilic surfaces, adhesion forces (mainly capillary forces) decrease linearly with a logarithmic increase of the sliding velocity. The experimental data are well explained by a model based on a thermally activated growth process of a capillary meniscus.

Circular mode: a new scanning probe microscopy method for investigating surface properties at constant and continuous scanning velocities.

In this paper, we introduce a novel scanning probe microscopy mode, called the circular mode, which offers expanded capabilities for surface investigations especially for measuring physical properties that require high scanning velocities and/or continuous displacement with no rest periods. To achieve these specific conditions, we have implemented a circular horizontal displacement of the probe relative to the sample plane. Thus the relative probe displacement follows a circular path rather than the conventional back and forth linear one. The circular mode offers advantages such as high and constant scanning velocities, the possibility to be combined with other classical operating modes, and a simpler calibration method of the actuators generating the relative displacement. As application examples of this mode, we report its ability to (1) investigate the influence of scanning velocity on adhesion forces, (2) measure easily and instantly the friction coefficient, and (3) generate wear tracks very rapidly for tribological investigations.