New article on nanotribology of soft surfaces published in Nanoscale by Dr. Evangelos Liamas

A new open access paper titled "Friction between soft contacts at nanoscale on uncoated and protein-coated surfaces" has been published in Nanoscale. This interdisciplinary work carried out by Dr. Evangelos Liamas (Postdoctoral Fellow, ERC LubSat Project) in collaboration with Dr. Morfo Zembyla (Postdoctoral Fellow, ERC LubSat Project) from our laboratory in collaboration with Dr. Rammile Ettelaie  and Dr. Simon Connell from Physics demonstrates exciting nanotribology results in hard–soft & soft–soft contacts using spherical borosilicate glass/ PDMS colloidal probes. Unprecedented results from this ERC Project LubSat funded study reveal that modulus of a surface can have a significant impact on the frictional properties of protein-coated surfaces at nanoscale with higher deformability leading to lower contact pressure and, consequently, decreased friction. Such impact on modulus also depend on the kind of protein (lactoferrin, LF or beta-lactoglobulin, β-lg) and their degree of coating of the soft surfaces. These important results pave the way forward for designing new functional surfaces for serving as models of appropriate deformability to replicate the mechanical properties of the biological structures for accurate friction measurements at nanoscale. Check out the paper at https://doi.org/10.1039/D0NR06527G