Surface forces, surface chemistry and tribology

Scanning probe methods have been applied to the investigation of tribological phenomena on the nanometre and nanonewton scale. The systems studied have included parallel investigation of identical tribosystems on the macro and nano scales, where the inherent differences in the AFM/LFM and flat-on-disk experiments have been compared; oxide-covered surfaces in contact under electrolytes, where the adhesion hysteresis and frictional behaviour was shown to be strongly dependent on the solution pH; and polymer surfaces, where advantage can be taken of variations in the interactions between the scanning tip and different polymers, to perform chemically sensitive, high-resolution surface imaging of polymer blends. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.