This doesn't make a lot of sense to me. In the first place triboelectric charging is a result of rubbing two materials at different levels on the triboelectric scale past each other. There is nothing "triboelectric" about the apparatus as presented in the original video. No rubbing contact = no triboelectric transfer of charge. In the second place the aluminum strips will short out any difference in charge between the two sides of the disk. The thin layer of adhesive on foil duct tape might as well not be there at all where electrostatic voltages are concerned. In the third place, what is "non-static" wood? There are insulators and there are conductors. Wood, by containing moisture, is more or less a conductor depending on the moisture content. Very dry wood is almost as good an insulator as plastic. Varnish your wood and it helps to make it more insulating. Moisture on surfaces, like adsorbed moisture from the air on plastic surfaces, will conduct enough to kill the performance of electrostatic devices. If you have any conduction between oppositely charged areas of an electrostatic machine... that makes a short-circuit and the charges will neutralize. For there to be appreciable mechanical forces produced by charge accumulation -- like enough to rotate that wheel rapidly -- the voltage differences concerned must be high and sustained, and that means that even what we would normally consider to be "high resistance" is still conductive enough to allow the electrostatic voltage difference to neutralize.
Put it this way, air has charged ions both positive and negative which co-exist, by moving the disk to start the process, charges are placed on either side of the disc depending on the affinity of each side. As far as the aluminium duct tape, I use it for making caps but with an added dielectric, my comment was just that, a comment that it looked like duct tape and not a kitchen foil or raping from your favorite chocolate Yes moisture would be a killer, some woods do not build up huge charges, unlike most man made fibers and plastics that build up huge charges, like an acrylic sheet, or is that not true? I'm not a "static" person well apart from when I put my key in my gate, then I see blue flashes and get a nasty jolt I now get the wife to unlock the gate I must be a walking cap or running one always after a run, wearing running shoes, cotton pop socks, cotton shorts and a cotton T shirt with no sleeves, so what gets charged and how? I really would like to know as I'm frightened to touch my gate, it's really pissing me off regards mike
---------------------------
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident." Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
As a general rule, the most successful person in life is the person that has the best information.
|