The presence of van der Waals (vdW) force can lead to mechanical instability in freestanding nano-scale actuators. Most of the previous researches in this area have exclusively focused on modeling the instability in actuators with one actuating components. While, less attention has been paid to actuators consist of two actuating components. Herein, the effect of the vdW force on the instability...

We report high resolution simultaneous measurements of electrical conductance and force gradient between two sharp gold tips as their separation is varied from the tunneling distance to atomic-size contact. The use of atomically sharp tips minimizes van der Waals interaction, making it possible to identify the short-range metallic adhesion contribution to the total force.

We consider a single slight protuberance in perfectly conducting plane and investigate the van der Waals (vdW) interaction between this surface neutral polarizable particle. When is sufficiently smooth that proximity force approximation (PFA) well applicable, for fixed distance of particle from plane, lateral vdW always points to protuberance. On other hand, by making calculations valid beyond ...

Cellular structures are shaped by hydrogen and ionic bonds, plus van der Waals and hydrophobic forces. In cells crowded with macromolecules, a little-known and distinct force-the "depletion attraction"-also acts. We review evidence that this force assists in the assembly of a wide range of cellular structures, ranging from the cytoskeleton to chromatin loops and whole chromosomes.

where a is the plate separation; in principle, a QED effect can directly influence a macroscopic, classical, apparatus. In spite of the extensive theoretical attention this effect has received over the years (see [2,3] for recent reviews), there has been only one attempt at its measurement. This measurement, as reported by Sparnaay in 1958, showed an attractive force “not inconsistent with” the...

We calculate the friction force between two semi-infinite solids in relative parallel motion (velocity V), and separated by a vacuum gap of width d. The friction force result from coupling via a fluctuating electromagnetic field, and can be considered as the dissipative part of the van der Waals interaction. We consider the dependence of the friction force on the temperature T , and present a d...

Among the intermolecular interactions, the Casimir and van der Waals forces are the most important forces that highly affect the behavior of nanostructures. This paper studies the effect of such forces on the adhesion of cantilever freestanding nanostructures. The nanostructures are made of a freestanding nano-beam which is suspended between two upper and lower conductive surfaces. The linear s...

A number of experiments on fluid flow at the micro/nano-scale have demonstrated that flow velocity obviously deviates from the classical Poiseuille’s law due to the micro forces between the wall and the fluid. Based on an oil–water two-phase network simulation model, a three-dimensional pore-scale micro network model with solid–liquid interfacial effects was established. The influences of solid...