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Science 28 July 2000:
Vol. 289. no. 5479, pp. 602 - 604
DOI: 10.1126/science.289.5479.602

Reports

Low-Friction Nanoscale Linear Bearing Realized from Multiwall Carbon Nanotubes

John Cumings, A. Zettl*

We demonstrate the controlled and reversible telescopic extension of multiwall carbon nanotubes, thus realizing ultralow-friction nanoscale linear bearings and constant-force nanosprings. Measurements performed in situ on individual custom-engineered nanotubes inside a high-resolution transmission electron microscope demonstrated the anticipated van der Waals energy-based retraction force and enabled us to place quantitative limits on the static and dynamic interwall frictional forces between nested nanotubes. Repeated extension and retraction of telescoping nanotube segments revealed no wear or fatigue on the atomic scale. Hence, these nanotubes may constitute near perfect, wear-free surfaces.

Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA, and Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: azettl{at}physics.berkeley.edu


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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Sign Change of Poisson's Ratio for Carbon Nanotube Sheets.
L. J. Hall, V. R. Coluci, D. S. Galvao, M. E. Kozlov, M. Zhang, S. O. Dantas, and R. H. Baughman (2008)
Science 320, 504-507
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Mechanics of spheroidal fullerenes and carbon nanotubes for drug and gene delivery.
B. J. Cox, N. Thamwattana, and J. M. Hill (2007)
Q J Mechanics Appl Math 60, 231-253
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Time, temperature, and load: The flaws of carbon nanotubes.
R. S. Ruoff (2006)
PNAS 103, 6779-6780
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Extracting subnanometer single shells from ultralong multiwalled carbon nanotubes.
B. H. Hong, J. P. Small, M. S. Purewal, A. Mullokandov, M. Y. Sfeir, F. Wang, J. Y. Lee, T. F. Heinz, L. E. Brus, P. Kim, et al. (2005)
PNAS 102, 14155-14158
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)