Ajayan, Pulickel M.2013-09-162013-09-162013-09-162013-09-162013-052013-09-16May 2013Cox, Paris. "Water Drop Tribology of Graphene and Polymer Nanocomposites." (2013) Diss., Rice University. <a href="https://hdl.handle.net/1911/71942">https://hdl.handle.net/1911/71942</a>.https://hdl.handle.net/1911/71942Basic physics teaches us that the frictional force (lateral force) needed to move objects on surfaces are proportional to load (normal force) – Amonton’s Laws. In tribology, this force is proportional to contact area, whereas Amonton is just a special case for contact area scaling with load. Such established laws do not seem to apply to small drops on flat, smooth surfaces in which frictional forces have an inverse relation to contact area and have time component prior to movement. Such phenomena can be explained by Shanahan-deGennes were intermolecular forces are considered for a deformed surface. Graphene is a special case where no time component is observed and frictional forces are attributed to its chemical homogeneity and stability. In the second part of this thesis, graphene is considered as nanofiller to build up polymer nanocomposites via Layer by Layer (LbL). Graphene Nanoribbons derived from multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) offers a special case for thermoplastic polyurethane nanocomposites in that of thermally activated twisting morphology influences nanocomposite properties. Finally an electric field driven transdermal hydrogel drug delivery device has been demonstrated by just using CNTs, polyvinyl-borax gel and a CNT membraneapplication/pdfengCopyright is held by the author, unless otherwise indicated. Permission to reuse, publish, or reproduce the work beyond the bounds of fair use or other exemptions to copyright law must be obtained from the copyright holder.GrapheneHydrogelsCNTTribologyPolymer nanocompositeTPUThesis2013-09-16123456789/ETD-2013-05-577