Tribo‐Induced Structural Transformation and Lubricant Dissociation at Amorphous Carbon–Alpha Olefin Interface

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 1800157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaowei Li ◽  
Aiying Wang ◽  
Kwang‐Ryeol Lee
Author(s):  
D. L. Misell

In the electron microscopy of biological sections the adverse effect of chromatic aberration on image resolution is well known. In this paper calculations are presented for the inelastic and elastic image intensities using a wave-optical formulation. Quantitative estimates of the deterioration in image resolution as a result of chromatic aberration are presented as an alternative to geometric calculations. The predominance of inelastic scattering in the unstained biological and polymeric materials is shown by the inelastic to elastic ratio, I/E, within an objective aperture of 0.005 rad for amorphous carbon of a thickness, t=50nm, typical of biological sections; E=200keV, I/E=16.


Author(s):  
H. Todokoro ◽  
S. Nomura ◽  
T. Komoda

It is interesting to observe polymers at atomic size resolution. Some works have been reported for thorium pyromellitate by using a STEM (1), or a CTEM (2,3). The results showed that this polymer forms a chain in which thorium atoms are arranged. However, the distance between adjacent thorium atoms varies over a wide range (0.4-1.3nm) according to the different authors.The present authors have also observed thorium pyromellitate specimens by means of a field emission STEM, described in reference 4. The specimen was prepared by placing a drop of thorium pyromellitate in 10-3 CH3OH solution onto an amorphous carbon film about 2nm thick. The dark field image is shown in Fig. 1A. Thorium atoms are clearly observed as regular atom rows having a spacing of 0.85nm. This lattice gradually deteriorated by successive observations. The image changed to granular structures, as shown in Fig. 1B, which was taken after four scanning frames.


Author(s):  
A.-M. Ladhoff ◽  
B.J. Thiele ◽  
Ch. Coutelle ◽  
S. Rosenthal

The suggested precursor-product relationship between the nuclear pre-mRNA and the cytoplasmic mRNA has created increased interest also in the structure of these RNA species. Previously we have been published electron micrographs of individual pre-mRNA molecules from erythroid cells. An intersting observation was the appearance of a contour, probably corresponding to higher ordered structures, on one end of 10 % of the pre-mRNA molecules from erythroid rabbit bone marrow cells (Fig. 1A). A virtual similar contour was observed in molecules of 9S globin mRNA from rabbit reticulocytes (Fig. 1B). A structural transformation in a linear contour occurs if the RNA is heated for 10 min to 90°C in the presence of 80 % formamide. This structural transformation is reversible when the denatured RNA is precipitated and redissolved in 0.2 M ammonium acetate.


Author(s):  
David A. Muller

The sp2 rich amorphous carbons have a wide variety of microstructures ranging from flat sheetlike structures such as glassy carbon to highly curved materials having similar local ordering to the fullerenes. These differences are most apparent in the region of the graphite (0002) reflection of the energy filtered diffracted intensity obtained from these materials (Fig. 1). All these materials consist mainly of threefold coordinated atoms. This accounts for their similar appearance above 0.8 Å-1. The fullerene curves (b,c) show a string of peaks at distance scales corresponding to the packing of the large spherical and oblate molecules. The beam damaged C60 (c) shows an evolution to the sp2 amorphous carbons as the spherical structure is destroyed although the (220) reflection in fee fcc at 0.2 Å-1 does not disappear completely. This 0.2 Å-1 peak is present in the 1960 data of Kakinoki et. al. who grew films in a carbon arc under conditions similar to those needed to form fullerene rich soots.


Author(s):  
Mircea Fotino ◽  
D.C. Parks

In the last few years scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) has made it possible and easily accessible to visualize surfaces of conducting specimens at the atomic scale. Such performance allows the detailed characterization of surface morphology in an increasing spectrum of applications in a wide variety of fields. Because the basic imaging process in STM differs fundamentally from its equivalent in other well-established microscopies, good understanding of the imaging mechanism in STM enables one to grasp the correct information content in STM images. It thus appears appropriate to explore by STM the structure of amorphous carbon films because they are used in many applications, in particular in the investigation of delicate biological specimens that may be altered through the preparation procedures.All STM images in the present study were obtained with the commercial instrument Nanoscope II (Digital Instruments, Inc., Santa Barbara, California). Since the importance of the scanning tip for image optimization and artifact reduction cannot be sufficiently emphasized, as stressed by early analyses of STM image formation, great attention has been directed toward adopting the most satisfactory tip geometry. The tips used here consisted either of mechanically sheared Pt/Ir wire (90:10, 0.010" diameter) or of etched W wire (0.030" diameter). The latter were eventually preferred after a two-step procedure for etching in NaOH was found to produce routinely tips with one or more short whiskers that are essentially rigid, uniform and sharp (Fig. 1) . Under these circumstances, atomic-resolution images of cleaved highly-ordered pyro-lytic graphite (HOPG) were reproducibly and readily attained as a standard criterion for easily recognizable and satisfactory performance (Fig. 2).


Author(s):  
Jean-Luc Rouvière ◽  
Alain Bourret

The possible structural transformations during the sample preparations and the sample observations are important issues in electron microscopy. Several publications of High Resolution Electron Microscopy (HREM) have reported that structural transformations and evaporation of the thin parts of a specimen could happen in the microscope. Diffusion and preferential etchings could also occur during the sample preparation.Here we report a structural transformation of a germanium Σ=13 (510) [001] tilt grain boundary that occurred in a medium-voltage electron microscopy (JEOL 400KV).Among the different (001) tilt grain boundaries whose atomic structures were entirely determined by High Resolution Electron Microscopy (Σ = 5(310), Σ = 13 (320), Σ = 13 (510), Σ = 65 (1130), Σ = 25 (710) and Σ = 41 (910), the Σ = 13 (510) interface is the most interesting. It exhibits two kinds of structures. One of them, the M-structure, has tetracoordinated covalent bonds and is periodic (fig. 1). The other, the U-structure, is also tetracoordinated but is not strictly periodic (fig. 2). It is composed of a periodically repeated constant part that separates variable cores where some atoms can have several stable positions. The M-structure has a mirror glide symmetry. At Scherzer defocus, its HREM images have characteristic groups of three big white dots that are distributed on alternatively facing right and left arcs (fig. 1). The (001) projection of the U-structure has an apparent mirror symmetry, the portions of good coincidence zones (“perfect crystal structure”) regularly separate the variable cores regions (fig. 2).


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