Why Petting Your Kitty Creates Static Electricity

 


Two objects that rub against each other create static electricity. There hasn’t been an exact explanation for this phenomenon until now. Northwestern University scientists have published a paper in the journal Nano Letters. It was discovered that when an object slides, the front and back parts experience different forces. The difference in one of these forces, electrical charges,  creates a current. This leads to a ‘shock.’

Laurence Marks led the study. He is a professor emeritus of material science and engineering at Northwestern’s McCormick school of engineering. 

He stated, “ for the first time we were able to explain a mystery that nobody could before: Why rubbing matters. People have tried, but they could not explain the experimental results without making assumptions that were not justified or justifiable. We now can, and the answer is surprisingly simple. Just having different deformations, and therefore different charges at the front and back of something sliding leads to current.”

Back in 2019, Marks and his team published the study in Physical Review Letters. They claimed that rubbing two materials together actually bends tiny protrusions on the surface of these materials. It’s the bent and deformed that increased the voltage. 

Marks reports: “ In 2019, we had the seed of what was going on. However, like all seeds, it needed time to grow. Now it has blossomed. We developed a new model that calculates electrical current. The values for the current for a range of different cases were in good agreement with experimental results.”

The team is researching “elastic shear.” It can happen when a material resists the sliding force. If a person pushes a mug across the table, the mug will resist. When the person stops pushing, the mug stops moving. This added friction causes electrical charges to move. It is caused by the resistance to sliding.

It is fun to pet your kitty, however, sparks from static electricity can cause fires and even explosions. With better understanding of static electricity, new solution solutions to these issues will arise. 

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