Thermo-responsive polymer films have enabled the development of various functional surfaces with switchable interfacial properties. Assessing the surface forces and friction on such films is of paramount importance. On the one hand, it allows us to extract a great deal of information on the interfacial properties of the films, e.g., adhesiveness and lubricity, and how they could be tuned using different stimuli. On the other hand, surface force measurements complement other thin-film analysis methods, e.g., ellipsometry, to better perceive the correlation between the molecular properties of the polymer chains and the interfacial properties of the film. On this basis, we will, herein, provide a concise review of some recent studies on surface forces and friction tuned by thermo-responsive polymer films. This outline comprises a summary of several research works addressing the effects of temperature, solvent composition, and salts on surface forces and friction. In the end, we briefly discuss a few select studies in which the regulation of surface forces by thermo-responsive polymers is examined with an emphasis on the potential applications.

热响应性聚合物薄膜已使具有可切换界面特性的各种功能性表面得以发展。评估此类薄膜上的表面力和摩擦至关重要。一方面，它使我们能够提取有关膜的界面特性的大量信息，例如粘合性和润滑性，以及如何使用不同的刺激来调整它们。另一方面，表面力测量是对其他薄膜分析方法（例如椭圆偏光法）的补充，以更好地感知聚合物链的分子性质与膜的界面性质之间的相关性。在此基础上，我们将在此简要回顾一下有关通过热响应性聚合物薄膜调整的表面力和摩擦的一些最新研究。该概述包括针对温度，溶剂成分和盐对表面力和摩擦的影响的几项研究工作的摘要。最后，我们简要讨论了一些精选的研究，其中研究了热响应性聚合物对表面力的调节，重点是潜在的应用。