The Relationship between Static Charge and Shape

Rakesh K Pandey; Chi Kit Ao; Weichun Lim; Yajuan Sun; Xin Di; Hideyuki Nakanishi; Siowling Soh

doi:10.1021/acscentsci.9b01108

The Relationship between Static Charge and Shape

ACS Cent Sci. 2020 May 27;6(5):704-714. doi: 10.1021/acscentsci.9b01108. Epub 2020 Mar 27.

Authors

Rakesh K Pandey^{1

2}, Chi Kit Ao¹, Weichun Lim¹, Yajuan Sun¹, Xin Di¹, Hideyuki Nakanishi², Siowling Soh¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, 4 Engineering Drive 4, Singapore 117585, Singapore.
² Department of Macromolecular Science and Engineering, Graduate School of Science and Technology, Kyoto Institute of Technology, Matsugasaki, Kyoto 606-8585, Japan.

Abstract

The amount of charge of a material has always been regarded as a property (or state) of materials and can be measured precisely and specifically. This study describes for the first time a fundamental physical-chemical phenomenon in which the amount of charge of a material is actually a variable-it depends on the shape of the material. Materials are shown to have continuously variable and reversible ranges of charge states by changing their shapes. The phenomenon was general for different shapes, transformations, materials, atmospheric conditions, and methods of charging. The change in charge was probably due to a dynamic exchange of charge from the material to the surrounding atmosphere as the shape changed via the reversible ionization and deposition of air molecules. Similar changes in charge were observed for self-actuating materials that changed their shapes autonomously. This fundamental relationship between geometry and electrostatics via chemistry is important for the broad range of applications related to the charge of flexible materials.