On the tribology and rheology of polymer brushes in good solvent conditions: a molecular dynamics study

Tribological and rheological properties of two polymer brushes in relative sliding motion and good solvent conditions are investigated by means of molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The lateral forces between the brushes are found to decrease logarithmically with increasing relative sliding velocity v0 over a range of more than one decade in v0. We also observe an almost logarithmic relaxation of the end-to-end distance vector that occurs after sliding is stopped. The coincidence of these logarithmic dependencies support the picture that friction between polymer brushes is small due to the retraction of the polymers from the interpenetration zone. The shear stress relaxes almost instantly in our simulations after sliding is stopped, unless poor solvent conditions are considered.