Adhesion and Friction Studies of Nano-textured Surfaces Produced by Self-Assembling Au Nanoparticles on Silicon Wafers

摘要

This article presents the results of nanoscale friction and adhesion of nanoparticle-textured surfaces (NPTS) using atomic force microscope (AFM). The effects of coverage ratio, texture height, and packing density on the adhesion and friction of the NPTS were investigated. The nano-textured surfaces were produced by self-assembling Au nanoparticles (NPs) with diameters of 20 nm and 50 nm on the silicon (100) surfaces, respectively. Surface morphology of the NPTS was characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy and AFM. The results show that the NPTS significantly reduced the adhesive force compared to the smooth surface. The adhesion of NPTS is mainly dependent on the coverage ratio of NPs rather than the texture height and higher coverage ratio resulted in smaller adhesive force. The reduced adhesion of textured surfaces was attributed to the reduced real area of contact. The friction of NPTS is mainly dependent on the spacing between asperities. The lowered frictional force was obtained when the spacing between asperities is less than the size of AFM tip, because of the effectively reduced real area of contact between the AFM tip and the NPTS surface.