Abstract:The presence of a capillary bridge between solid surfaces is ubiquitous under ambient conditions. Usually, it leads to a continuous decrease of friction as a function of bridge height. Here, using molecular dynamics we show that for a capillary bridge with a small radius confined between two hydrophilic elastic solid surfaces, the friction oscillates greatly when decreasing the bridge height. The underlying mechanism is revealed to be a periodic ordered-disordered transition at the liquid–solid interfaces. Thi… Show more
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