Nanoscale Effects of Friction, Adhesion and Electrical Conduction in AFM Experiments

Abstract

Friction and adhesion are two so related phenomena of the contact formed by two bodies. And due to the presence of friction and adhesion very often we have wear, i.e., third body presence generated by friction and adhesion. Likely, friction is one of the oldest phenomena in the history of humankind and of natural science, e.g., physics. Friction was the origin of first fire lit by human in early Stone Age, and of the many events Egyptians had faced while pulling huge blocks of stone needed for their pyramids. In fact, Egyptians were basically the first tribologists in history, even if the term tribology defined as "science and technology of interacting surfaces in relative motion", was suggested only in 1966 by Peter Jost.