Violation of triboelectric charge conservation on colliding particles

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that in microgravity, colliding glass spheres often lose net charge, indicating charge dissipation into the environment and violating traditional charge conservation assumptions.

Contribution

It provides experimental evidence of charge violation during particle collisions, highlighting charge entrainment into the atmosphere in microgravity conditions.

Findings

Particles lose net charge after collision

Charge entrainment occurs into the surrounding atmosphere

Charge conservation is significantly violated in microgravity

Abstract

In microgravity experiments, we quantified the net charge on systems of two identical, 434 \textmu m diameter glass spheres before and after a collision. We find that charge conservation is significantly violated. Independent of the sign of the total charge, the systems regularly lose some of their net charges, that is, they slightly discharge. This implies that positive as well as negative charge carriers become entrained into the surrounding atmosphere during a collision.