A Computational Model for Flexoelectricity-Driven Contact Electrification

TL;DR

This paper presents a computational model that explains how nanoscale contact on dielectrics induces flexoelectric polarization, leading to charge transfer and complex charge patterns, supported by experimental AFM data.

Contribution

It introduces a novel integrated model combining flexoelectricity, contact mechanics, and charge transfer, capturing irreversible charge trapping and surface heterogeneity effects.

Findings

Geometric surface asymmetry causes charge separation and polarity reversal.

Model reproduces experimental charge distributions on rough dielectric surfaces.

Flexoelectric effects can generate non-uniform charge patterns without material inhomogeneity.

Abstract

Recent theoretical studies show that nanoscale contact on dielectric substrates can induce flexoelectric polarization large enough to drive electron transfer. This has been supported by experimental evidence, indicating that contact electrification is inherently a coupled electromechanical phenomenon. In this work, we develop a computational model for flexoelectricity-driven contact electrification that integrates finite-deformation flexoelectricity with contact mechanics and physically motivated charge transfer. A tunneling transparency function is introduced to regulate the interfacial channel based on the WKB approximation, capturing the irreversible charge trapping during unloading. Three contact scenarios are investigated with specific hypotheses for charge transfer: unbiased metal-dielectric contact driven by surface polarization, biased contact restricted to carriers of a single polarity, and dielectric-dielectric contact where surface states with finite capacity limit the transferable charge. The model is compared with atomic force microscopy measurements on PMMA and PDAP substrates under both biased and unbiased conditions.For contact between identical dielectric materials, we show that geometric asymmetry in surface curvature is sufficient to induce charge separation, with polarity reversal occurring at a critical surface wavenumber. Three-dimensional simulations on random rough surfaces reproduce the mosaic charge distributions observed experimentally, confirming that contact-induced local strain gradient heterogeneity can generate spatially non-uniform charge patterns without introducing any material inhomogeneity.