ABSTRACT
Self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) are commonly used as model boundary lubricants that reduce friction and protect against wear of surfaces that are in close proximity (in contact or at separations of a few molecular diameters) and at high pressures. Among the properties that affect the frictional response of self-assembled systems are packing density [1-4], molecular chain length [5, 6] and rigidity [7], strength of anchoring to the underlying substrate [8], and end-group functionality
[6, 9], all of which have some effect on the lateral cohesion of the monolayer [3, 5, 6, 10, 11] and on the ease with which defects are formed during sliding [1, 3-6].
