Robust triboelectric charging of identical balloons of different radii

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that rubbing identical rubber balloons of different radii can produce consistent triboelectric charging, highlighting the effect of strain on triboelectric properties and its educational potential.

Contribution

It reveals that strain influences triboelectric polarity and introduces a simple, robust method for generating consistent charges using identical materials of different sizes.

Findings

Rubbing identical balloons of different radii produces consistent polarity.

Strain affects the triboelectric properties of rubber.

The method is useful for teaching electrostatics in physics courses.

Abstract

Electrification by rubbing different materials is a well known phenomenon with a history that begun more than five centuries BC. However, simple experiments can lead to contradictory or inconsistent results and the history of this phenomena is plagued with non-intuitive results. For example, triboelectric charging by rubbing identical materials is possible. In this work we want to highlight some historical aspects of triboelectricity that could enrich the discussion of electrostatics in an undergraduate physics course. We will focus on the effect of strain on the triboelectric properties of a sample, which we think is not well known to physics teachers. We will show that it is possible to obtain robust polarities by rubbing identical rubber balloons of different radii and we will also show that this charging method can be very useful in introductory physics courses.