Bearings that never wear out may be < br />.
In the experiment, the researchers observed that the relative sliding between the inner and outer walls of centimeter-long carbon nanotubes could occur rapidly, and the ultra-low friction between the inner and outer walls was measured, which proved the phenomenon of superlubrication. Interestingly, this friction has nothing to do with the length of carbon nanotubes, that is, no matter how long the carbon nanotubes are, their inner layers can be easily extracted.

It is worth mentioning that they also found that when some nano-flake structures were loaded on the outer walls of the carbon nanotubes with fracture at both ends, they could naturally form a ldquo; a miniature windmill-rdquo; which could run at high speed with a gentle blow of air, which indirectly proved the phenomenon of superlubrication.

Professor Michael Urbakh, an expert in friction theory and professor at Tel Aviv University in Israel, believes that this work-ldquo, with its landmark novel discovery, definitely proves the existence of macro-scale superlubrication, which is undoubtedly the first time that such a low friction force has been observed from micro to macro-scale. & rdquo;

Wei Fei said: & ldquo; We have provided an ideal model for achieving superlubrication. Other materials can also achieve superlubrication as long as they satisfy the conditions. There is great potential in the field of nanodevices in the future. & rdquo;

Recently, a research team led by Professor Wei Fei of Tsinghua University announced that the last detection of super-lubrication at macro scale in atmospheric environment has brought a glimmer of light for mankind to overcome the friction phenomenon in the future - mdash; & mdash; once super-lubrication materials and devices are manufactured, the last clockwork will never stop. Bearings that do not wear out are no longer far away.

Data show that about 1/31/2 of disposable energy is consumed in the process of friction, and the losses caused by friction and wear in industrial developed countries account for 5% to 7% of GDP. In micro and nano scale, with the rapid increase of surface area per unit volume of materials, interface friction becomes a key factor restricting the performance and life of devices. Bearing Enterprise < br />
To solve the problems of friction and wear is to realize super lubrication. Does superlubrication really exist? In the past 20 years, many scientific experiments have proved that it can only be achieved at a special micro-nano scale, and most of it can be achieved under ultra-high vacuum conditions, but this is far from practical application. Scientists once thought that it was almost impossible to achieve superlubrication at a macro scale.

In the past 10 years, Wei Fei's team has done a lot of research on carbon nanotubes. They found that large-scale relative sliding can occur between two adjacent layers of carbon nanotubes, which is an ideal material for the study of superlubrication. Subsequently, they conducted experiments with the Center for Micronanomechanics and Multidisciplinary Interdisciplinary Innovation of Tsinghua University and the School of Information of Peking University.

Researchers first produced carbon nanotubes called “” and proved that carbon nanotubes had no defects in the range of several centimeters. However, the diameter of carbon nanotubes is only a few nanometers, about one thousandth of the hair, but the length of carbon nanotubes can reach several centimeters. It is very difficult to measure the relative motion between the inner tube and the outer tube. The team devised a novel labeling method. They loaded many titanium dioxide nanoparticles on the surface of carbon nanotubes, which scattered visible light. By observing the spacing between these nanoparticles, the relative slip information between the inner and outer layers of carbon nanotubes could be obtained.