Friction is closely connected with people's daily lives, and the abrasion caused by friction can cause major losses in engineering applications or even endanger lives. 

A team led by Professor Shan Zhiwei from the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Xi'an Jiaotong University has invented the Lorentz-force-actuated in situ transmission electron microscope friction technology, and explored the physical mechanisms of the maximum friction force at the sub-micron scale, providing a new tool for solving this problem.

Inspired by the working principle of the Lorentz force, Lu Huanhuan, a PhD student in Shan Zhiwei's research team, took advantage of the magnetic field inside transmission electron microscope, developed the Lorentz-force-actuated approach for friction tests inside transmission electron microscope, and created the edge tool to reveal single-asperity friction, the most basic problem in the field of friction.

This technology has received a national invention patent. The research was published in the academic journal Journal of Materials Science & Technology with the title "A new approach of using Lorentz force to study single-asperity friction inside TEM". PhD student Lu Huanhuan from the School of Materials Science and Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University is the first author of the paper; Professor Shan Zhiwei from the School of Materials Science and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Professor Li Ju from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Associate Professor Wang Zhangjie from the School of Materials Science and Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University are the co-corresponding authors of the paper. Professor Yun Di participated in the research.

The research was funded by the National Key Research and Development Program and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

Paper link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmst.2020.12.044