Does Flexoelectricity Drive Triboelectricity?

The triboelectric effect, charge transfer during sliding, is well established but the thermodynamic driver is not well understood. We hypothesize here that flexoelectric potential differences induced by inhomogeneous strains at nanoscale asperities drive tribocharge separation. Modeling single asper...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters Vol. 123; no. 11; p. 1
Main Authors: Mizzi, C. A., Lin, A. Y. W., Marks, L. D.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: College Park American Physical Society 12.09.2019
Subjects:
Asperity
Charge density
Charge materials
Charge transfer
Charging
Indentation
Surface charge
Triboelectric effect
ISSN:0031-9007, 1079-7114, 1079-7114
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The triboelectric effect, charge transfer during sliding, is well established but the thermodynamic driver is not well understood. We hypothesize here that flexoelectric potential differences induced by inhomogeneous strains at nanoscale asperities drive tribocharge separation. Modeling single asperity elastic contacts suggests that nanoscale flexoelectric potential differences of ±1–10  V or larger arise during indentation and pull-off. This hypothesis agrees with several experimental observations, including bipolar charging during stick slip, inhomogeneous tribocharge patterns, charging between similar materials, and surface charge density measurements.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 14
content type line 23
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22)
FG02-01ER45945
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.116103