The Intrinsic Frictional Property of Carbon Nanotubes

This paper aims to provide an understanding of the intrinsic frictional behaviour of CNTs under contact sliding by eliminating the possible effects of CNT rolling and slipping. Two critical steps towards the mechanism exploration were carried out: (1) the development of a new deposition method for CNT film fabrication, which allows the manufacture of densely packed, highly entangled CNT films to be firmly bonded on solid substrates for contact sliding testing; and (2) the theoretical understanding of the frictional behaviour of CNTs using the molecular dynamics analysis. The investigation clarified the controversial arguments in the literature and concluded that CNT films can be used as a superior solid lubricant with an ultra-low coefficient of friction of around 0.01.