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June 1, 2005
i've made charts and graphs that should finally make it clear
I’m forever trying to explain to people what I do. So I will today, if only to be able to put a link on the side to this post. I wish I could just say carbon nanotubes or fuelcells. (Okay, not really for many many reasons.) The project that I have spent most of my time here on is a carbon based low friction coating. The interesting thing about that is that you (more than likely) use a carbon based coating every week. Most razor blades are coated with this carbon based compound (carbon and a very small amount of (if any) hydogen specifically in this case). It is just more for corrosion protection – as most coatings/thin films are. The thin film on the razor blade prevents the steel from oxidizing, forming iron oxide (rust), which dulls the blade. A sharp blade reduces the contact area between it in your skin, reducing the friction that causes “razor burn”.
Everything, just about, has a coating on it for some purpose – to protect, to make more appealing, etc. One of the films I make is to reduce the friction between two surfaces, i.e. to reduce the energy required to move one surface over the other. A wheel of a train on a track is a good example, the pistons in your car, another. MEMs devices have lot of trouble friction (stiction to be exact). This energy to over come friction is wasted energy. Your car wastes 62% of its energy overcoming friction. [This site is has an excellent explaination.] Interesting quote - "Only about 15% of the energy in the fuel you put in your gas tank gets used to move your car down the road or run useful accessories like air conditioning or power steering." To be able to reduce the friction between parts, and therefore the energy waste associated with that, would have a huge effect on the economy, and in this day, global politics. We’ve (ok, I’ve, base on my advisor idea) synthesized a film that has ultra-low friction properties in ambient air, something that has never been done before. Carbon + hydrogen films alone have shown ulta-low friction in dry nitrogen, but humidity was always a problem. We’ve synthesized a doped version that has no humidity problems, and therefore can be used in every day life. It’s pretty exciting. Many days I have doubted our results, but more than a year later and many reproducible friction test, I am starting to trust my data. I’m looking forward to following this project further.
The other thing I do is wear resistant coatings. Oxide based instead of carbon based. This is more in the scientific stage – can we synthesize an oxide multilayer, which displays an interesting hardness enhancement phenomena that has been observed in nitrides m.l.? It’s going to be tough, but I have some good preliminary results. Thank goodness my advisor is a great advisor and had some money for upgrading my system, or I would never have a chance. These films would be used as protective coating for use at high temperature where current coating fail. They would replace cutting fluids that are harmful to the environment and humans.
Posted by christina at June 1, 2005 2:33 PM