By directly interrogating the contact interface with spec-troscopy in conjunction with complementary surface science tools, we highlight the unique role of water at interfaces and under confinement. The evolution of water from a weakly bonded to a strongly coordinated bonded water at the contact interface is the key feature to provide stabile lubricating film under confinement. This changes the concept of monolayer coverage and how we infer this phenomenon from more common measurements like contact angles. Our work not only experimentally characterizes of water under confinement, but demonstrates the significance of how its molecular details are relevant towards understanding interfacial phenomena. Although this work focuses around sliding friction, the contact of adsorbed amphiphiles on hydrophobic surfaces serves a simple analogue for water under confinement to more complicated problems of cell membrane interactions and animal adhesion.
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