Contact charging of solution-cast polymers by metals ☆

The charge transfer between metals and some solution-cast polymers has been investigated by employing intermittent soft contact under a controlled condition. The result of our measurements reveals that the measured charge is unaffected by our attempt at purifying the polymer samples and so we conclude that the charge transfer is an intrinsic property of the polymers. The histogram of the charge distribution for all the polymers studied is not Gaussian but skewed towards larger charges. The metal work function influences the charge transfer to the polymer except polyvinyl chloride, which behaves as Teflon, already reported in our earlier work.