Unveiling the Hidden Forces of Static Electricity through Soft Matter Research: A new study sheds light on the mystery of charge transfer between objects, revealing a pattern in the behavior of squishy polymers and a triboelectric series that explains why some materials become negatively or positively charged when touched.
Squishy Materials Reveal New Physics of Static Electricity
Static electricity is a daily phenomenon that affects everything from lightning storms to pollination. However, scientists still don’t understand how the charge transfer works when objects touch each other. A new study has shed light on this mystery by studying the behavior of a squishy polymer called polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS).
Static electricity is a common phenomenon where an object becomes electrically charged due to friction or contact with another object.
This occurs when electrons are transferred from one object to another, resulting in an imbalance of charges.
The buildup of static electricity can be seen in everyday objects such as balloons, clothing, and even human bodies.
According to the American Chemical Society, 60% of people experience 'static shock' at least once a day.
Static electricity can be neutralized by grounding or by allowing the charged object to come into contact with a conductive material.
The History of Objects Matters
When a balloon is rubbed on hair, it typically picks up a negative electric charge, while the hair goes positive. However, researchers have found that the charge an object picks up can depend on its history. The number of times an object had previously touched another material determined whether it became negatively or positively charged when touched again.
A New Understanding of Static Electricity
The study used experiments with a single material, PDMS, to measure the electric charge transferred between two samples. At first, the results seemed random, but eventually, the researchers discovered a pattern. A sample that had been touched to other samples many times would charge negative when touched to a fresh one.
The Triboelectric Series
The researchers also found that the samples formed what’s known as a triboelectric series. This is an ordering based on which material in a pair takes a negative charge and which a positive charge when touched. For example, a balloon usually goes negative when it touches hair, but a balloon touched to Teflon would typically get a positive charge.
The Role of Contact History
The study’s findings suggest that contact history is crucial in determining the triboelectric series. The samples that had been touched repeatedly were smoother on very small distance scales of about 10 nanometers. This discovery illuminates the source of some of the confusion surrounding static electricity and could be a step toward understanding the effects behind this phenomenon.
A Key Result
Chemical engineer Daniel Lacks of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland believes that the result is a key to understanding the previous irreproducibility of static electricity experiments. ‘It helps us understand the previous irreproducibility, in that you have these materials that you think are all the same but there’s going to be subtle differences in the nanostructure,’ he says.
Accidental Discovery
Physicist Juan Carlos Sobarzo, who performed the experiments, attributes the discovery to a mixture of accident and stubbornness. He tried the experiments repeatedly until they worked as expected, leading him to realize that the repetition itself was key to getting a triboelectric series. ‘If I hadn’t followed my gut, we could’ve missed the importance of contact history,’ he says.
The Future of Static Electricity Research
The study’s findings have significant implications for our understanding of static electricity and its effects on various phenomena. Further research is needed to fully understand the mechanisms behind this phenomenon and how it can be harnessed or mitigated in different contexts.
A triboelectric series is a ranking of materials based on their triboelectric charging characteristics.
It measures the tendency of materials to gain or lose electrons when in contact with another material, resulting in static electricity.
The series was first developed by German physicist Ernst Friedrich Ludwig Alexander Wiedemann in 1859 and has since been widely used in various industries, including electronics and textiles.
Materials are ranked from most positive (donate electrons) to most negative (accept electrons), with air and glass typically at the extremes.
Static electricity is a type of electricity that occurs due to friction between two objects.
Research in this field focuses on understanding the causes and effects of static electricity.
Scientists have discovered that static electricity can be generated by rubbing certain materials, such as glass or plastic, against each other.
This phenomenon is often observed in everyday life, causing hair to stand up or clothes to cling together.
Recent studies have also explored the potential applications of static electricity in fields like medicine and electronics.
- sciencenews.org | Squishy materials reveal new physics of static electricity
