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Updated: Oct 20, 2025

Finite Element Modelling of a Cellular Electric Microenvironment
Published on: May 18, 2021
Violation of triboelectric charge conservation on colliding particles
Felix Jungmann1, Hannah van Unen1, Jens Teiser1
1University of Duisburg-Essen, Lotharstrasse 1, D-47057 Duisburg, Germany.
Abstract:
In microgravity experiments, we quantified the net charge on systems of two identical, 434-μm-diameter glass spheres before and after a collision. We find that charge conservation is significantly violated. Independent of the sign of the total charge, the systems regularly lose some of their net charges, that is, they slightly discharge. This implies that positive as well as negative charge carriers become entrained into the surrounding atmosphere during a collision.
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