Influence of the surface chemistry on the nanotribological behaviour of (AFM tip/graphite) couples

The development of the nanotechnology has made essential the knowledge of the tribological behaviour of carbonaceous materials, and more particularly of graphite. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is thus used to study the friction properties at this nanoscopic scale. In this work, results concerning the friction of AFM tips against graphite pins are presented, with a particular emphasis on the effect of the chemical modification of these tips on the tribological behaviour of graphite.

► Bare AFM tip/graphite: friction is not modified by variations of scanning velocity. ► Same couple: a rise of the friction is noticed when the contact load increases. ► Chemically treated AFM tips: friction is smaller with a hydrophobic tip.