Looking at atoms

1994/05/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Fisika

A group of researchers from the Basel Institute of Nuclear Physics has improved the "tunnel-effect microscope", the main nanotechnology tool.

It detects the mixture of lubricants placed on the surface of an object using the new microscope with a resolution of 5 angstromes, that is, a hundred times better than what until now was to study the lubricants.

The microscope allows observing the surface arrangement of the different mixing molecules. It can also measure the strength with which different molecules adhere. This feature is important when using solid surfaces such as oils (i.e. hydrocarbons) or teflon (fluorocarbons). A good lubricant should facilitate the movement of the mechanical parts in contact, but at the same time it should stick them correctly to the surfaces to prevent them from moving in motion.

The team led by Dr. Ernst Muller has shown that friction problems between two silicon surfaces can be solved with a two-compound lubricant. On the one hand, the fluorocarbon layer strongly adheres to the surface on which it is intended to protect, on which hydrocarbon islets act.