News From the Field
Penn Research Shows Mechanism Behind Wear at the Atomic Scale
January 29, 2013
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As surfaces rub against one another, they break down and lose their original shape. With less material to start with and functionality that often depends critically on shape and surface structure, wear affects nanoscale objects more strongly than it does their macroscale counterparts. Now, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have experimentally demonstrated one of the mechanisms behind wear at the smallest scale: The transfer of material, atom by atom, from one surface to another.Full StorySource
University of Pennsylvania
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