Cold Self-Lubrication of Sliding Ice.

Authors

Achraf Atila, Sergey V Sukhomlinov, Martin H Müser

Published in

Physical review letters. Volume 135. Issue 6. Pages 066204. Aug 08, 2025.

Abstract

The low kinetic friction between ice and numerous counterbodies is commonly attributed to an interfacial water layer, which is believed to originate from preexisting surface water or from melt water induced by high contact pressures or frictional heat. However, even the currently leading theory of frictional melting appears to defy direct experimental verification. Here we present molecular simulations of ice interfaces that reveal that ice surfaces liquefy without melting thermodynamically but predominantly by cold, displacement-driven amorphization. Despite effective self-lubrication, very small ice friction is found to require water to slip past a hydrophobic counterface-or an excess amount of water, produced by, e.g., extreme sliding velocities.

PMID:
40864940
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 28 Aug 2025.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.