Controlling Surface Charge Generated by Contact Electrification: Strategies and Applications

Contact electrification is the phenomenon in which charge is generated on the surfaces of materials after they come into contact. The surface charge generated has traditionally been known to cause a vast range of undesirable consequences in our lives and in industry; on the other hand, it can also give rise to many types of useful applications. In addition, there has been a lot of interest in recent years for fabricating devices and materials based on regulating a desired amount of surface charge. It is thus important to understand the general strategies for increasing, decreasing, or controlling the surface charge generated by contact electrification. Herein, the fundamental mechanisms for influencing the amount of charge generated, the methods used for implementing these mechanisms, and some of the recent interesting applications that require regulating the amount of surface charge generated by contact electrification, are briefly summarized.