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Hypothesis: The adhesion forces of particles in the submicron range play a decisive role in many particle processes such as agglomeration. These forces are influenced by many factors such as particle size, surface roughness, and contact area. The quantification of these influences should be possible by linking adhesion forces, measured with colloidal probe atomic force microscopy (cp-AFM), and surface energy, measured with the capillary rise method, using different adhesion force models., Experiments: Silica-silica (SiO 2 -SiO 2 ), polystyrene-polystyrene (PS-PS) and mixed adhesive force contacts of micrometer-sized particles were measured by cp-AFM. The surface energy was determined by the capillary rise method using the Owens-Wendt-Rabel-Kaelble (OWRK) method. Various adhesive force models were used to link the experimentally measured forces. In the adhesive force models, the particle size, the distance between the particles, and the roughness were varied., Findings: Adhesion forces measured with the AFM can be linked to the OWRK method via adhesion force models such as the particle-particle Van-der-Waals (VDW) model, Rumpf's roughness model, and a proprietary model for multiple particle-particle interactions with the surface energy. The main influencing factors are the substrate and particle roughness as well as their plastic or elastic behavior, which influences the contact area of the adhesive contact., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)