Producing quantitative microscale maps of friction

What is it about?

This paper describes how to produce quantitative maps of friction coefficient using the atomic force microscope. A polymer blend exhibiting regions of surface-exposed poly(methyl methacrylate) and polystyrene is used as an example.

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Why is it important?

Being able to map friction alongside typography (height scale) information has many applications in materials science. Significantly, this paper provides a quantitative scale of friction that is not usually considered when producing AFM friction maps elsewhere. This is important so that different friction maps can be compared.

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