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posted by CoolHand on Thursday July 23 2015, @04:07AM   Printer-friendly
from the graphene-schmaphene dept.

Argonne scientists used Mira to identify and improve a new mechanism for eliminating friction, which fed into the development of a hybrid material that exhibited superlubricity at the macroscale for the first time. Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF) researchers helped enable the groundbreaking simulations by overcoming a performance bottleneck that doubled the speed of the team's code.
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They were amazed by what the computer simulations revealed. When the lubricant materials--graphene and diamond-like carbon (DLC)--slid against each other, the graphene began rolling up to form hollow cylindrical "scrolls" that helped to practically eliminate friction. These so-called nanoscrolls represented a completely new mechanism for superlubricity, a state in which friction essentially disappears.
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Superlubricity is a highly desirable property. Considering that nearly one-third of every fuel tank is spent overcoming friction in automobiles, a material that can achieve superlubricity would greatly benefit industry and consumers alike. Such materials could also help increase the lifetime of countless mechanical components that wear down due to incessant friction.


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  • (Score: 2) by physicsmajor on Thursday July 23 2015, @02:37PM

    by physicsmajor (1471) on Thursday July 23 2015, @02:37PM (#212686)

    Could be, or it could be that scientists are terrible at writing optimized code. From my experience, it's usually the latter.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 23 2015, @06:54PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 23 2015, @06:54PM (#212803)

    I know I am, getting better though. Just writing bottlenecks in c++ (which I am far less familiar with so I am sure it is crap) rather than R can give 100x increases.