Nonmonotonic Enhancement of Friction Regulation via Strain-Induced Moire Patterns on MoS2 Substrate Surface

Y Dong and CJ Zhang and R Deng and Y Tao and YX Zhang, ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES, 17, 22068-22078 (2025).

DOI: 10.1021/acsami.5c01833

Traditionally, strain-induced moire patterns at the friction interface can produce superlubrication. Here, we construct moire patterns on the surface of a two-layer MoS2 substrate through applying biaxial strain to the bottom layer of the substrate and investigate the effect of moire patterns on friction energy dissipation. Results indicate friction enhances nonmonotonically with an increase of strain. Notably, two types of frictional dissipation channels have been discovered, corresponding to washboard and moire-washboard frequencies. Based on this discovery, we determine that the nonmonotonic increase in friction is the result of coupling enhancement of the two dissipative channels and nonmonotonic change in moire surface roughness. Moreover, friction gradually evolves into a monotonic increase with strain as the adhesion factor between substrate layers enhances. This is because strong interlayer interaction leads to an extremely low moire barrier, which in turn makes moire- surface roughness vary minimally, and thus the coupling of two dissipative channels plays a dominant role in friction. Our observations provide strategies for actively controlling friction in 2D material systems.

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