Abstract:
The friction between the walls of multi-wall carbon nanotubes is shown to be extremely low in general, with important details related to the specific choice of the walls. This is governed by a simple expression revealing that the phenomenon is a profound consequence of the specific symmetry breaking: super-slippery sliding of the incommensurate walls is a Goldstone mode. Three universal principles of tribology, offering a recipe for lubricant selection are emphasized.
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Received 8 August 2001
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Damnjanović, M., Vuković, T. & Milošević, I. Super-slippery carbon nanotubes . Eur. Phys. J. B 25, 131–134 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e20020014
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e20020014