Fundamentals of Friction, unlike many books on tribology, is devoted to one specific topic: friction. After introductory chapters on scientific and engineering perspectives, the next section contains the necessary background within the areas of contact mechanics, surfaces and adhesion. Then on to fracture, deformation and interface shear, from the macroscopic behavior of materials in frictional contact to microscopic models of uniform and granular interfaces. Lubrication by solids, liquids and gases is presented next, from classical flow properties to the reorganization of monolayers of molecules under normal and shear stresses. A section on new approaches at the nano- and atomic scales covers the physics and chemistry of interfaces, an array of visually exciting simulations, using molecular dynamics, of solids and liquids in sliding contact, and related AFM/STM studies. Following a section on machines and measurements, the final chapter discusses future issues in friction.

This book provides an updated review on the development of scanning probe microscopy and related techniques, and the availability of computational techniques not even imaginable a few decades ago. The 36 chapters cover instrumental aspects, theoretical models and selected experimental results, thus offering a broad panoramic view on fundamental issues in nanotribology which are currently being investigated. Compared to the first edition, several topics have been added, including triboluminescence, graphene mechanics, friction and wear in liquid environments, capillary condensation, and multiscale friction modeling. Particular care has been taken to avoid overlaps and guarantee the independence of the chapters. In this way, our book aims to become a key reference on this subject for the next five to ten years to come.

Readers of this book will become familiar with the concepts and techniques of nanotribology, explained by an international team of scientists and engineers, actively involved and with long experience in this field. Edited by two pioneers in the field, the book is suitable both as a first introduction to this fascinating subject, and also as a reference for researchers wishing to improve their knowledge of nanotribology.

The word tribology was fIrst reported in a landmark report by P. Jost in 1966 (Lubrication (Tribology)--A Report on the Present Position and Industry's Needs, Department of Education and Science, HMSO, London). Tribology is the science and technology of two interacting surfaces in relative motion and of related subjects and practices. The popular equivalent is friction, wear and lubrication. The economic impact of the better understanding of tribology of two interacting surfaces in relative motion is known to be immense. Losses resulting from ignorance of tribology amount in the United States alone to about 6 percent of its GNP or about $200 billion dollars per year (1966), and approximately one-third of the world's energy resources in present' use, appear as friction in one form or another. A fundamental understanding of the tribology of the head-medium interface in magnetic recording is crucial to the future growth of the $100 billion per year information storage industry. In the emerging microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) industry, tribology is also recognized as a limiting technology. The advent of new scanning probe microscopy (SPM) techniques (starting with the invention of the scanning tunneling microscope in 1981) to measure surface topography, adhesion, friction, wear, lubricant-fIlm thickness, mechanical properties all on a micro to nanometer scale, and to image lubricant molecules and the availability of supercomputers to conduct atomic-scale simulations has led to the development of a new fIeld referred to as Microtribology, Nanotribology, or Molecular Tribology (see B. Bhushan, J. N. Israelachvili and U.