Nanofriction and nanoscale triboelectrification is a universally existing phenomenon and important in many branches of nanotechnology, but how the nanoscale triboelectrification affects the nanofriction during the relative sliding at the contact interface is not fully investigated. Here, nanoscale triboelectrification and nanofriction on the insulating SiO₂ surface were investigated with atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning Kelvin probe microscopy. By the AFM tip sliding on the SiO₂ surface, both triboelectric charges and nanofriction were investigated with the applied load, sliding cycle, and external electric field. Whether the tribocharges on the SiO₂ surface were negative or positive, the nanofriction increases with the enhanced tribocharge density by nanoscale triboelectrification, while decreases with the reduced tribocharges by charge diffusion. The change of nanofriction correlates strongly with the variation in tribocharge density due to the tribocharge induced excess electrostatic interactions at the sliding interface. These findings not only add to our understanding of the role of nanoscale triboelectrification on nanofriction, but also help to control energy dissipation of sliding nanofriction, which is also important in many branches of nanotechnology, such as data storage and nanoelectromechanical system.

纳米摩擦和纳米摩擦起电是普遍存在的现象，在纳米技术的许多分支中都很重要，但纳米摩擦起电如何影响接触界面相对滑动过程中的纳米摩擦尚未得到充分研究。在这里，用原子力显微镜 (AFM) 和扫描开尔文探针显微镜研究了绝缘 SiO ₂表面上的纳米级摩擦起电和纳米摩擦。通过在 SiO ₂表面上滑动的 AFM 尖端，在施加的载荷、滑动周期和外部电场下研究了摩擦电荷和纳米摩擦。SiO ₂上是否产生摩擦电荷当表面为负或正时，纳米摩擦随着纳米级摩擦起电增加摩擦电荷密度而增加，而随着电荷扩散减少摩擦电荷而减小。由于摩擦电荷在滑动界面处引起的过量静电相互作用，纳米摩擦的变化与摩擦电荷密度的变化密切相关。这些发现不仅增加了我们对纳米级摩擦起电对纳米摩擦作用的理解，而且有助于控制滑动纳米摩擦的能量耗散，这在纳米技术的许多分支中也很重要，例如数据存储和纳米机电系统。