Uniaxial Strain-Induced Anisotropic Charge Transfer in Contact Electrification

Abstract

Even though contact electrification has been studied for a long time, the mechanism of charge transfer still remains elusive. Most of previous reports only focus on the driving force of charge transfer. However, to better understand the mechanism of charge transfer, we believe contact itself for supplying transferring path that charges taking also need to be understood. Here, we focus on the in-plane symmetry of contact in contact electrification by utilizing a uniaxial strain to change the material's isotropic nature to anisotropic. A clear anisotropic charge transfer is observed by contacting axially stretched rubber films at different rotational angles, which could arise from fluctuation of contacting area in microscale. A universal ellipse model is also proposed for qualitatively describing the anisotropy of contact regardless of the specific driving force of contact electrification.