Surface forces and adhesion between electrolytic copper cathode surfaces and sphere surfaces of glass and polystyrene were measured with an atomic force microscope (AFM) in water and in aqueous medium containing 104, 10-3 and 10-2 M sodium chloride at ambient temperature. Two types of copper surfaces were considered, oxidized and just-polished. Copper surfaces are submicroscopically rough and so at "contact", a film of intervening fluid separates substrate from probe. At close proximity, the interaction of the copper surfaces with either of the two probes is repulsive and such that extending and retracting force curves are essentially hysteresis-free. At higher separations, extending force curves for any probe-substrate combination were markedly repulsive and DLVO type. The higher the electrolyte concentration, the lower the range of the repulsive force. The system polystyrene-polished substrate displayed contact jumps for the higher electrolyte concentrations considered here, thus suggesting true adhesion between the surfaces. Strong and extremely long-ranged adhesive behavior were measured for the interaction between glass probes and oxidized copper substrates in low salt concentration solutions; at the origin are submicroscopic bubbles or cavities trapped between the surfaces and stabilized by the chemical heterogeneity of the interacting surfaces. A long-ranged, although weak, attractive interaction between polystyrene probes and just-polished copper substrates in aqueous salt solution belongs to the interacting surfaces although the intensity and range seems enhanced by the formation of bubbles.
