抄録
The friction between a single silica sphere attached to a rectangular cantilever and a flat silicon wafer in different concentration electrolyte solutions has been investigated using lateral force microscopy. In order to obtain clean and hydrophilic substrates the wafers have been washed in organic solvents and then, they have been plasma treated in Argon gas-moisture atmosphere. The lateral friction force as a function of applied normal loads has been collected and the range of electrolyte concentrations varied between 10-3 and 1.0 M. Analysis of the friction versus load data indicates that increasing the electrolyte concentration, the intensity of the lateral signal decreases. Lateral force versus scan rate graphs show a typical behavior for all investigated systems: at low values of scan rate, a transition region (from 0.4 to 20 µ/s) and a saturation region(between 20 µ/s and 55 µ/s). The friction trends behavior is discussed and a model is proposed.
