  Adhesion between two bodies is a key parameter in wear processes. At the
macroscale, strong adhesive bonds are known to lead to high wear rates, as
observed in clean metal-on-metal contact. Reducing the strength of the
interfacial adhesion is then desirable, and techniques such as lubrication and
surface passivation are employed to this end. Still, little is known about the
influence of adhesion on the microscopic processes of wear. In particular, the
effects of interfacial adhesion on the wear particle size and on the surface
roughness evolution are not clear, and are therefore addressed here by means of
molecular dynamics simulations. We show that, at short timescales, the surface
morphology and not the interfacial adhesion strength dictates the minimum size
of wear particles. However, at longer timescales, adhesion alters the particle
motion and thus the wear rate and the surface morphology.
