Nonfrictional Charging of Polymers (Polyethylene-Oxide and Polycarbonate) by Metals

Measurement of the charge produced by intermittent soft contact between metal and two polymers [polyethylene oxide (PEO) and polycarbonate (PC)] was carried out under a controlled condition. The results of the investigation showed that both PEO and PC charged predominantly positive with almost all the metal contactors. The graph of the charge versus work function for both polymers shows a lot of scatter, which tends to mask the influence of metal work function on the charge transfer. However, within a first-order approximation, the charge transfer to PEO is independent of the metal work function. On the contrary, there is a trend for the charge transfer to PC to increase with the metal work function.