Wuhan University Journal of Natural Sciences

, Volume 20, Issue 2, pp 173–179 | Cite as

A theoretical analysis of torque and superlubric motion in bilayer graphene disks

Engineering Science
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Abstract

To identify the relation between torque and superlubric motion, we investigate the interlayer sliding behavior of two graphene disks with numerical computation methods. The potential energy, lateral force and torque between the top and bottom graphene disks, which are associated with misfit angle, translational displacement and interlayer distance, are analyzed. The results show that the rotation of the top disk is feeble for commensurate state, but it is difficult to realize superlubricity due to the lateral force fluctuating remarkably. For incommensurate state, the flake exhibits vanishing torque approaching to zero only for partial sliding directions. The superlubricity between the top and bottom disks will be eliminated due to torque-induced reorientation along other sliding directions. Whether for commensurate or incommensurate contact, the amplitudes of the lateral force (516 pN and 13 pN, respectively) are in qualitative agreement with experimental observation (typically 250 pN and 50 pN, respectively). It shows that the interlayer torque is insensitive to the top disk size with incommensurate contact. The results suggest that the superlubric motion of graphene disk can be controlled by adjusting the torque.

Keywords

graphene disk incommensurate superlubricity torque 

CLC number

TB 34 
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Copyright information

© Wuhan University and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Institute for Advanced StudyNanchang UniversityNanchangJiangxi, China
  2. 2.School of ScienceNanchang Institute of TechnologyNanchangJiangxi, China

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