Project start: 1.10.2025.

The aim of the proposed research is to make a scientific contribution to the field of tribology by developing an experimental methodology for characterizing the parameters influencing the  occurrence of friction in the nano- and microrange, and in particular the dependence on material properties, surface topography, load, relative motion speed, temperature and lubrication conditions. The proposed experimental methodology will enable obtaining quantitative tribological measurements at multiple scales, which will enable the development of scalable friction models of various nanomaterials and advanced engineering materials. The experimental methodology includes the use of a scanning probe microscope (SPM) to measure motion in the nano- and microrange using various microsensors. Furthermore, the sensors used, i.e. probes, w ill be subjected to coating with thin films of the most commonly used nanomaterials in order to determine their tribological properties. The production of coated thin film probes is an innovative method that is not available in the published literature, and will thus enable new experimental insights into the tribological behavior of materials at the nano- and microscales. Experimental analyses of nano- and microtribological systems with combinations of relevant nanomaterials and widely used engineering materials, such as alloy steels, synthesized in thin film form via pulsed laser deposition, will thus be performed. Also, friction forces will be related also to tribochemical and physical phenomena. Furthermore, the complex experimental methodology is structured with innovative experimental design methods, which w ill also enable the development of new multidimensional and multiparametric models based on various machine learning and artificial intelligence methods, with the aim of developing new models that describe this stochastic phenomenon, which will enable the expansion of current friction models and general knowledge in the field of tribology.