Adhesion forces due to nano-triboelectrification between similar materials

¹ Laboratoire de Physico-Chimie des Polymères, CNRS UMR 5067, LPMI-CURS, BP 1155, 64013 Pau Cedex, France
² Laboratoire d'Ingénierie et Fonctionnalisation des Surfaces, CNRS UMR 5621, École Centrale de Lyon, BP 163, 69134 Ecully Cedex, France
³ Laboratoire de Tribologie et Dynamique des Systèmes, UMR 5513 CNRS / ECL / ENISE, École Centrale de Lyon, BP 163, 69134 Ecully Cedex, France

Corresponding author: christelle.guerret@univ-pau.fr

Received: 9 December 2003
Revised: 8 April 2004
Accepted: 9 April 2004
Published online: 25 June 2004

Abstract

Contact electrification and triboelectrification are well-known in the case of dissimilar materials, however the case of charge exchange during friction between nominally identical insulating materials is less documented. We experimentally investigated the triboelectrification between two smooth monocrystalline -Al₂O₃ (sapphire) antagonists by surface force measurements with a Surface Force Apparatus (SFA). The force between a sphere and a plane, both in sapphire, was measured as a function of the sphere-plane distance D, before and after nano-friction tests, under dry argon atmosphere. Respective contributions of van der Waals, water meniscus and electrostatic forces were determined. The estimated Hamaker constant was in good agreement with the Lifshitz theory, and the dominant meniscus attraction at low separation could be overcome with small radius sphere. We demonstrated that electrostatic forces were generated by the nano-friction test and we quantified the adhesion that results from this contact-electrification. In the first stage of the unloading process, the short range electrostatic force was found to vary both with time and distance D. Experimental results were correlated with surface densities of mobile charges on the two surfaces, and the time-dependence was related to classical surface transport phenomena on alumina surfaces.