The enduring puzzle of static electricity

https://pubs.aip.org/physicstoday/article/78/8/54/3355922/The-enduring-puzzle-of-static-electricityEven

by EvgeniyZh • 12 months ago

112 20 12 months ago

pubs.aip.org

Peteragain• 12 months ago

No mention of lightening! The idea that the triboelectric series is more guidelines than rules was interesting, but the metal-insulator distinction seems a bit off. Is there a triboelectric effect between two conductors? How? Why wouldn't the distribution of electrons even out in a pair of conductors, or do they mean non conducting metals? And I imagine someone has looked at triboelectric effects between crystals of varying materials - does anyone know?

gsf_emergency_2• 12 months ago

Based on our theory, the Seebeck coefficient is the fundamental source of the mysteriousness of triboelectricity.

https://journals.aps.org/prresearch/abstract/10.1103/PhysRev...

Put 2 conductors with different Seebecks in contact and you get a... thermocouple (at least?)

Simon_O_Rourke• 12 months ago

Two experiments using the same sets of materials may yield two distinct orderings of the materials.

A quantum static effect?

MarkusQ• 12 months ago

More likely unrecorded environmental factors (temperature, humidity, etc.)

omnicognate• 12 months ago

The wikipedia page on the triboelectric effect is particularly good, and has a hilarious cat picture.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triboelectric_effect

layer8• 12 months ago

It looks like someone got carried away with the motion-capture markers. ;)

tobr• 12 months ago

Good opportunity to share this life hack: I used to end up with a mess almost every time I used my coffee grinder, much like the picture in the article. Eventually I learned that this only happens with very dry beans. Adding a few tiny drops of water before grinding is enough to get rid of it pretty much completely. Since making coffee already involves water it’s as easy as dipping a finger and then running it through the beans.

Reubachi• 12 months ago

Thanks for this tip!

I just tried, worked like a charm :)

hinoki• 12 months ago

It actually helps the extraction from the coffee grounds too, not just for reducing mess.

https://youtu.be/nLnB99VJ0HE

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S259023852...

magicalhippo• 12 months ago

Similarly dry air can be a literal component killer when working with electronics. Sometimes a humidifier is needed to ensure static build-up doesn't go too far.

InitialLastName• 12 months ago

This is actually an interesting challenge for places that work with electronics assembly at an industrial scale; they have competing drives to keep humidity high for ESD mitigation, but also deal with a lot of moisture-sensitive components whose acceptable exposure to free air (after baking, but before reflow) is measured in hours (and substantially worse with higher humidity).

ddingus2• 12 months ago

A while back, I watched a YT video of someone making a large electret. Reading this makes me really want to make one for myself.

An electret is an item that presents a permanent static charge. It is like a permanent magnet. Has an enduring charge polarity.

The only use of an electret I know of is the electret microphone. And those use a very small electret.

In the video, the author made a large one. Hockey puck sized. He used some type of nylon. (I think I remember it right...)

dTal• 12 months ago

n95 masks use electret filters, which allows them to capture particles much smaller than the 0.3 micron mesh size - such as coronavirus virions.

ddingus2• 11 months ago

Interesting! I did not know that.

calmbonsai• 12 months ago

See also, this wonderful Reactions static electricity video: https://youtu.be/-Buz6Sp2YTg

kazinator2• 12 months ago

Remember, static RAM requires electric current, whereas dynamic RAM uses static electricity.

Workaccount2• 12 months ago

You might want to double check that. I would assume you are getting caught up on the gates of memory cells being capacitive and holding a charge. But both memory types use FET technology, and saying FETs use static electricity is sort of a stretch.

kazinator2• 12 months ago

- There exists TTL SRAM.

- The state in a SRAM cell is maintained by mutual feedback of two cross-coupled amplifier-like circuits. The currents involved may be low in the case of CMOS, but that's immaterial to the design that it's not simply static electricity representing the 0 or 1 state. But power must continue to be supplied for the state to persist.

- The state of a DRAM call is actually charge on a capacitor. It leaks and so DRAM requires refresh.

The dynamic/static refers to the need or no need for refresh.

airbreather• 12 months ago

For the who knows how many times, this is worth a repeat - the 3M electrostatic force field

http://amasci.com/weird/unusual/e-wall.html

The enduring puzzle of static electricity

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