A lateral force microscopy study of friction between glassy carbon and different surfaces

A Nanoscope III atomic force microscope (AFM) was used to measure the friction between glassy carbon microspheres, glued to the AFM cantilever, and flat surfaces of silicon, carbon, steel and silver. The measured friction data was fitted using the Derjaguin-Müller-Toporov (DMT) model. The work of adhesion between the spheres and the surfaces ranged from 0.45 mNm⁻¹ for the carbon surface to 19 mNm⁻¹ for the silicon surface. The work of adhesion was found to be proportional to the interfacial shear strength for silver, steel and carbon