Smoothest bearings: interlayer sliding in multiwalled carbon nanotubes
The well-defined geometry and extreme structural anisotropy of a multiwalled carbon nanotube can bring qualitatively new features to its nanometer-scale tribology. Efficient cancellation of registration-dependent interactions in incommensurate tubes (and also, surprisingly, certain axial commensurate tubes) can induce extremely small and nonextensive shear strengths.
Kolmogorov
AN
Department of Physics, The Pennsylvania State University, 104 Davey Lab, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802-6300, USA.
Crespi
VH