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Friction 2024, 12(1): 110-119 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40544-023-0738-6
Research Article | Open Access | Issue | Published: 26 April 2023

Comparative analysis of frictional behavior and mechanism of molybdenum ditelluride with different structures

Show Author's Information Lina ZHANG,  Xinfeng TAN( ),  Jianguo JIAO,  Dan GUO,  Jianbin LUO( )
State Key Laboratory of Tribology in Advanced Equipment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Keywords:
friction, two-dimensional (2D) materials, phase transition, distorted octahedral-molybdenum ditelluride (1T′-MoTe2), hexagonal-molybdenum ditelluride (2H-MoTe2)
Cite this article:
ZHANG L, TAN X, JIAO J, et al. Comparative analysis of frictional behavior and mechanism of molybdenum ditelluride with different structures. Friction, 2024, 12(1): 110-119. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40544-023-0738-6
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Abstract Full text About this article

Two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) have layered structures with excellent tribological properties. Since the energy difference between hexagonal-molybdenum ditelluride (2H-MoTe2) and distorted octahedral-molybdenum ditelluride (1T′-MoTe2) is very small among the transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs), MoTe2 becomes one of the most promising candidates for phase engineering. In our experiment, we found that the friction force and friction coefficient (COF) of 2H-MoTe2 were an order of magnitude smaller than those of 1T′-MoTe2 by the atomic force microscope (AFM) experiments. The friction difference between 1T′-MoTe2 and 2H-MoTe2 was further verified in molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The density functional theory (DFT) calculations suggest that the friction contrast is related to the difference in sliding energy barrier of the potential energy surface (PES) for a tip sliding across the surface. The PES obtained from the DFT calculation indicates that the maximum energy barrier and the minimum energy path (MEP) energy barrier of 2H-MoTe2 are both smaller than those of 1T′-MoTe2, which means that less energy needs to be dissipated during the sliding process. The difference in energy barrier of the PES could be ascribed to its larger interlayer spacing and weaker Mo–Te interatomic interactions within the layers of 2H-MoTe2 than those of 1T′-MoTe2. The obvious friction difference between 1T′-MoTe2 and 2H-MoTe2 not only provides a new non-destructive means to detect the phase transition by the AFM, but also provides a possibility to tune friction by controlling the phase transition, which has the potential to be applied in extreme environments such as space lubrication.


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About this article

Comparative analysis of frictional behavior and mechanism of molybdenum ditelluride with different structures

Show Author's information Lina ZHANG, Xinfeng TAN( ), Jianguo JIAO, Dan GUO, Jianbin LUO( )
State Key Laboratory of Tribology in Advanced Equipment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China

Abstract

Two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) have layered structures with excellent tribological properties. Since the energy difference between hexagonal-molybdenum ditelluride (2H-MoTe2) and distorted octahedral-molybdenum ditelluride (1T′-MoTe2) is very small among the transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs), MoTe2 becomes one of the most promising candidates for phase engineering. In our experiment, we found that the friction force and friction coefficient (COF) of 2H-MoTe2 were an order of magnitude smaller than those of 1T′-MoTe2 by the atomic force microscope (AFM) experiments. The friction difference between 1T′-MoTe2 and 2H-MoTe2 was further verified in molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The density functional theory (DFT) calculations suggest that the friction contrast is related to the difference in sliding energy barrier of the potential energy surface (PES) for a tip sliding across the surface. The PES obtained from the DFT calculation indicates that the maximum energy barrier and the minimum energy path (MEP) energy barrier of 2H-MoTe2 are both smaller than those of 1T′-MoTe2, which means that less energy needs to be dissipated during the sliding process. The difference in energy barrier of the PES could be ascribed to its larger interlayer spacing and weaker Mo–Te interatomic interactions within the layers of 2H-MoTe2 than those of 1T′-MoTe2. The obvious friction difference between 1T′-MoTe2 and 2H-MoTe2 not only provides a new non-destructive means to detect the phase transition by the AFM, but also provides a possibility to tune friction by controlling the phase transition, which has the potential to be applied in extreme environments such as space lubrication.

Keywords: friction, two-dimensional (2D) materials, phase transition, distorted octahedral-molybdenum ditelluride (1T′-MoTe2), hexagonal-molybdenum ditelluride (2H-MoTe2)

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Publication history

Received: 21 October 2022
Revised: 03 December 2022
Accepted: 05 January 2023
Published: 26 April 2023
Issue date: January 2024

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© The author(s) 2023.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 52175175) and the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XDC04000000).

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