Friction is so ubiquitous that we often don’t even think about it.
However, in our industrialised society, it is a serious engineering problem.
We use enormous amounts of energy to overcome friction in machines, and even more energy to replace parts that have worn out.
Structural superlubricity is a phenomenon by which two atomically flat, perfect, crystals can slide past each other with almost vanishing friction, provided their surfaces are structurally incompatible.
For now, this can be achieved in the lab under carefully controlled conditions.
In this talk, I will explain how structural superlubricity comes about.
I’ll discuss how and why we think it can help us reduce friction and show what materials scientists and engineers are trying to do to scale it up to more practical conditions.