Anisotropic friction on lamellar crystals of polyethylene by lateral force microscopy

Summary

Frictional forces are very sensitive to the interface structure and the chemical and atomic structure of surfaces. It has been shown in the late 80′s (1) that lateral forces due to friction can be measured by atomic force microscopy (AFM) in the contact mode (2,3). This involves measurements which evoke vertical deflection of the AFM probe and observation of lateral forces which twist the AFM force sensor. A simultaneous detection of vertical deflection and twisting of the microcantilever can be done by using a four-sectored positional sensitive photodetector which measures the change in the deflection of a laser light reflected off the top of the microcantilever. The newest generation of SPM (Scanning Probe Microscope) equipment allows for simultaneous AFM and Lateral Force Microscopy (LFM) scans. There is ample evidence in the literature that contact-mode AFM can be used not only to investigate polymer morphology (4,5), but also to study polymer architecture from a true molecular perspective (6).