Atomic force microscope study of friction at the submicron-scale during tribotests with self-mated steel
- Friction at the microscale during reciprocal sliding tribotests was studied for the first time with self-mated steel (100Cr6/AISI 52100) taking advantage of an atomic force microscope (AFM). To this aim, microsized steel particles were glued to the AFM-cantilever and employed as colloidal tips to perform tribotests on a steel disc. The torsion of the cantilever, which correlates with the friction force, was measured during the tests. Few tests with the same load did not yield any wear and show that the load and adhesion contributions to friction stay constant when the shape of the test particle does not change. Most of the presented tribotests engendered wear. For those tests, the increase of friction during the tribotests was attributed to the emerging plowing contribution. Furthermore, analysis of both torsion and local slope gives information on the creation of wear particles and their influence on friction.