Theory of friction between neutral polymer brushes

A type of static friction between two polymer brush coated surfaces resulting from fluctuations from mean-field theory is found, but with creeplike motion for forces below the force of static friction, which is much more rapid than the usual creep between solid surfaces in contact. At sufficiently light loads, it is shown that polymer brush coated surfaces can slide, with the load supported entirely by osmotic pressure, and thus exhibit no static friction and only extremely weak viscous kinetic friction.