Mechanism Behind Wear at the Atomic Scale

Wear is a fact of life. As surfaces rub against one another, they break down and lose their original shape. With less material to start with and functionality that often depends critically on shape and surface structure, wear affects nanoscale objects more strongly than it does their macroscale counterparts. Worse, the mechanisms behind wear processes are better understood for things like car engines than nanotech devices. But now, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Engineering and Applied Science have experimentally demonstrated one of the mechanisms behind wear at the smallest scale: the transfer of material, atom by atom, from one surface to another. The research was conducted by Tevis Jacobs, a doctoral student in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering , and Robert Carpick, department chair of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics. Their research was published Nanotechnology.