Assessment of wear resistance of single layer h-BN, MoS2, and graphene using colloidal probe atomic force microscope

Abstract

Two-dimensional materials such as single layer hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN), molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) and graphene have widely investigated because of their outstanding mechanical characteristics, chemical inertness and thermal stability. Furthermore, single layer h-BN, MoS2, and graphene also shown extremely low friction characteristics and strongly adhere to the substrate that make these thin films as potential candidates for protective coating layers and solid lubricants at micro and nano-scales. In this work, a systematical investigation of surface damage characteristics of single layer h-BN, MoS2, and graphene were carried out using atomic force microscopy colloidal probe in the long-term test. The findings in this work may be helpful to give a better understanding of the surface damage characteristics of single layer h-BN, MoS2, and graphene. And this work may be useful to suggest single layer h-BN, MoS2, and graphene as protective coating layers and solid lubricants to significantly prolong the operational lifetime of micro- and nano-devices.