Volume 51, Issue 20 p. 4843-4847
Communication

Material Transfer and Polarity Reversal in Contact Charging

Dr. H. Tarik Baytekin,

Department of Chemistry and Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208 (USA) http://dysa.northwestern.edu/

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Dr. Bilge Baytekin,

Department of Chemistry and Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208 (USA) http://dysa.northwestern.edu/

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Jared T. Incorvati,

Department of Chemistry and Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208 (USA) http://dysa.northwestern.edu/

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Prof. Dr. Bartosz A. Grzybowski,

Corresponding Author

Department of Chemistry and Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208 (USA) http://dysa.northwestern.edu/

Department of Chemistry and Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208 (USA) http://dysa.northwestern.edu/Search for more papers by this author
First published: 15 March 2012
Citations: 105

This work was supported by the Non-equilibrium Energy Research Center (NERC) which is an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences under award number DE-SC0000989. We thank Bruker for supplying PeakForce QNM software. XPS and Raman spectra were taken in KECK-II and BIF facilities at NU. H.T.B. and B.B. contributed equally to this work.

Abstract

In touch: The outcome of contact electrification between dielectrics depends not only on the transfer of charge but also on the transfer of material (see picture). Although only minute quantities of materials are being exchanged during contact, they can reverse the polarity of dielectrics. The reported results corroborate the mosaic model and suggest that the observations are because of the mechanical softness/hardness of the materials.

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