Fabrication of a Graphitic Layer for Nanotribological Studies of Temperature Rise in a Frictional Contact Area

Abstract

In this thesis I use a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) to investigate the interfacial heat rise of an adsorbed Kr layer on a single layer of graphite called graphene. The graphene surface is made by reacting CO to a 1000 Å thick Ni(111) surface at a temperature of 400 °C. A 100 Å Ti layer is the base layer the Ni is deposited onto. The surface is characterized using Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) under ultra high vacuum conditions. The change in frequency vs. pressure/coverage graphs on a linear scale shows at what pressures a monolayer of Kr forms. The frequency vs. pressure/coverage graphs on a log scale show phase changes that can be compared to well known static phase changes. The comparison of the static phase change to the dynamic phase change yields an inferred temperature at the interface. This inferred temperature remained the same regardless of the sliding velocity. The latter observation, which is one principal point of this thesis, remains true irrespective of surface quality.