The friction behavior of metals is directly linked to the mechanisms that accommodate deformation. We examine the links between mechanisms of strengthening, deformation, and the wide range of friction behaviors that are exhibited by shearing metal interfaces. Specifically, the focus is on understanding the shear strength of nanocrystalline and nanostructured metals, and conditions that lead to low friction coefficients. Grain boundary sliding and the breakdown of Hall–Petch strengthening at the shearing interface are found to generally and predictably explain the low friction of these materials. While the following is meant to serve as a general discussion of the strength of metals in the context of tribological applications, one important conclusion is that tribological research methods also provide opportunities for probing the fundamental properties and deformation mechanisms of metals.

金属的摩擦行为与适应变形的机制直接相关。我们研究了强化机制、变形机制和剪切金属界面所表现出的广泛摩擦行为之间的联系。具体而言，重点是了解纳米晶和纳米结构金属的剪切强度，以及导致低摩擦系数的条件。发现晶界滑动和剪切界面处霍尔-佩奇强化的破坏通常可以预测地解释这些材料的低摩擦。虽然以下内容旨在作为对摩擦学应用背景下金属强度的一般性讨论，