Tribocharging of identical insulators : Triboelectric series, triboelectric cycles and surface charges

Sobarzo Ponce JCA. 2025. Tribocharging of identical insulators : Triboelectric series, triboelectric cycles and surface charges. Institute of Science and Technology Austria.

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Thesis | PhD | Published | English

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ISTA Thesis
Abstract
Tribocharging, or contact electrification, is the phenomenon in which two initially neutral materials exchange electric charge through contact and subsequent separation. While it is widely observed in everyday life and crucial to numerous natural processes, even the most basic aspects of tribocharging are still a mystery—what are the charge carriers involved and what drives their exchange? This work spans three separate projects that address different aspects of tribocharging. First, we introduce a novel strategy combining Finite Element Method (FEM) simulations with Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy (KPFM) to quantitatively extract surface charge density from surface voltage maps. Second, we present a simple theoretical model that allows for the existence of triboelectric cycles, under the assumption that multiple charge carrying species are involved. Third, we present experimental evidence that identical materials can spontaneously evolve into a triboelectric series, driven by contact history. Modeling this behavior enables the replication of experimental results with simulations, and even experimentally forcing the appearance of a pre-designed series by manipulating contact history. Together, the findings from these projects challenge traditional views on tribocharging, provide new tools for probing it, and open up new avenues of research—all with the hopes of bringing us closer to understanding this puzzling phenomenon.
Publishing Year
Date Published
2025-08-27
Publisher
Institute of Science and Technology Austria
Acknowledgement
The project in Chapter 2 has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant Agreement No. 949120). The project in Chapter 3 has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant Agreement No. 949120). The project in Chapter 4 has received financing from the European Research Council grant agreement No. 949120 under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. The Analytical Instrumentation Center of the TU Wien acknowledges support by the FFG project ‘ELSA’ under grant no. 884672. C.M.P. and M.O. acknowledge the state of Lower Austria and the European Regional Development Fund under grant no. WST3-F542638/004-2021.
Page
96
ISSN
IST-REx-ID

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Sobarzo Ponce JCA. Tribocharging of identical insulators : Triboelectric series, triboelectric cycles and surface charges. 2025. doi:10.15479/AT-ISTA-20203
Sobarzo Ponce, J. C. A. (2025). Tribocharging of identical insulators : Triboelectric series, triboelectric cycles and surface charges. Institute of Science and Technology Austria. https://doi.org/10.15479/AT-ISTA-20203
Sobarzo Ponce, Juan Carlos A. “Tribocharging of Identical Insulators : Triboelectric Series, Triboelectric Cycles and Surface Charges.” Institute of Science and Technology Austria, 2025. https://doi.org/10.15479/AT-ISTA-20203.
J. C. A. Sobarzo Ponce, “Tribocharging of identical insulators : Triboelectric series, triboelectric cycles and surface charges,” Institute of Science and Technology Austria, 2025.
Sobarzo Ponce JCA. 2025. Tribocharging of identical insulators : Triboelectric series, triboelectric cycles and surface charges. Institute of Science and Technology Austria.
Sobarzo Ponce, Juan Carlos A. Tribocharging of Identical Insulators : Triboelectric Series, Triboelectric Cycles and Surface Charges. Institute of Science and Technology Austria, 2025, doi:10.15479/AT-ISTA-20203.
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