The effect of contact electrification on adhesion has been debated in recent years for gecko and bio-inspired dry adhesion material.To understand the fundamentals of this issue for Carbon Nanotube(CNT)dry adhesives,contact electrification and its relationship with adhesion are systematically studied using the first-principles calculation.Charge transfers from CNT or its special form,graphene,to the metal surface during the contact,and the transferred charge linearly correlates with the work function difference.Meanwhile,the adhesion energy is linearly related to the transferred charge for both CNT and graphene.More charge transfers from the flat graphene to metal surfaces than the curved CNT,leading to higher adhesion between graphene and metal surfaces.The curved structure of the CNT causes an irregular change of charge at the inter-face and hinders the charge transfer.Moreover,the curved structure induces electronic localization,which also decreases the interfacial charge transfer.The structure affects contact electrification,and hence adhesion is further demonstrated by the CNT with different deformation when contacting different surfaces.This study advances our understanding of contact electrification and its relationship with adhesion at the interface for bio-inspired carbon adhesive materials and sheds light on the control of them for engineering applications.