Methods of Electrostatic Charging

Electrostatics
The interaction of charges when they are stationary is crucial to understand electricity and
magnetism. The study of stationary charges is called electrostatics.

Electric Charges
Electric charge is the fundamental property of matter that is carried by elementary
particles. Benjamin Franklin, an American physicist, carried out a series of experiments involving
flying kites during thunderstorms which led to the discovery of electric charge. He named the
charge on a glass rod rubbed with silk as positive electricity. The charge on materials
similar to ebonite (a very hard form of rubber) rubbed with animal fur was referred to as
negative. Franklin also discovered that a charged conducting sphere has no electric field inside
it since the field and the charges are always outside the sphere. Benjamin Franklin used
the notations positive and negative to describe charges. This convention is still adopted
until today.

In 1897, J.J. Thomson discovered the presence of electrons. Through a series of

experiments, it was found that all electrons present in every atom have the same charge.
Rutherford’s experiment showed that atoms also contain protons that have an opposite
charge of an electron. By convention, the negative charge is assigned to the electron while
the positive charge is assigned to the proton. There are only two types of charges, and
materials can acquire these charges depending on the number of protons and electrons
present in them. Charges are measured in coulombs or C.

Interaction of Charges
Experiments show that positively charged objects are attracted to negatively charged
objects but repelled by any other positively charged object. The figure summarized these
interactions.

The diagrams show the interaction of (a) opposite and (b) like charges.
 Why can there still be an attractive force between a neutral object and a
charged object?
An attraction between charged and uncharged objects is still possible through charged separation
in the uncharged object. In this figure, electrons in the neutral sphere are attracted to the positive
sphere (sphere A) and move towards it. The electrons are already closer to the positive charges in
sphere A than the fixed positive charges on B. The overall force is towards sphere A as the force
between two charges increases with a decrease in distance.

The diagram shows that there is an attractive interaction between a neutral object and a
charged object.

Conductors and Insulators

There are two types of materials based on the ability of the object to let electrons move
through it. Conductors are materials that permit the electric charge to move easily from one
region of the material to another. On the other hand, insulators are materials that do not let
this happen. It can be seen in the figure that the presence of a charged rod does not affect
the arrangement of the charges in an insulator unlike in a conductor.

The diagrams show the effect of a charged rod to an insulator (left) and a conductor (right).

Methods of Charging
To easily understand different methods of charging, it is vital to have a mental image of the structure of
atoms. Atoms are made up of three subatomic particles namely: electrons, protons, and neutrons. The
first two particles are negatively and positively charged, respectively. Neutrons, on the other hand, are
neutral. The protons and neutrons are densely concentrated into a very small point in the atom, making
up the nucleus. The number of protons determines the element’s atomic number of the material. Thus,
the number of protons is the fingerprint of the materials. Electrons surround the nucleus. To compare
how small the nucleus is, consider an atom to be a few kilometers across. At this enlarged version, its
nucleus would be only the size of a tennis ball, and the electrons are several kilometers away from it,
 as shown in the figure. Electrons can easily jump from one material to another. Thus, electrons are the
charge carriers.

Charging by Friction
Objects are usually electrically neutral or uncharged, but they may become electrically
charged when they are rubbed against another material. When one material is rubbed
against another, there is friction between them, and electrons may be transferred from one
material onto the other. The material that has gained electrons is now negatively charged,
and the material that lost electrons is positively charged. Examples of electrostatic
experiments can be seen in the figure.

Diagrams showing experiments in electrostatics. Recall that like charges repel while opposite
charges attract.

What type of charge is transferred from one material to another during charging by friction?

Between two objects that are being rubbed, how can you determine which will become
negatively charged and which will become positively charged?

The triboelectric series (also called the electronegativity scale) ranks materials based on their
tendency to acquire charge. These materials are arranged based on their electron affinities.
Electron affinity is a property of a single, unbound atom, and it quantifies the amount of energy
released when an electron attaches to the atom. The higher the electron affinity of an object,
the greater its tendency to attract electrons. In the figure, plastic has a higher electron affinity
than fur and silk than glass. A sample triboelectric series is shown in the figure below.
 A sample triboelectric series for selected materials.

Charging by Conduction
Charging by conduction, also known as charging by contact, occurs when a charged object is in
contact with a neutral object. Figure shows how an uncharged metal object can be charged
by a negatively charged conductor.

Charging by conduction between a charged and a neutral metal object.

Suppose that these two objects are placed on an insulating stand such that they can be
easily moved around without being affected by other objects around them. Separation of
charges in the neutral object occurs when these two objects are placed close to each other.
The electrons are repelled on the other side away from the negatively charged object. At this
point, no charges can be transferred since they are not in contact yet. Once the objects are
in contact with each other, some of the negative charges from the negatively charged object
will transfer to the uncharged metal object. When the process of charging by conduction is
complete, the initially uncharged object now has an excess negative charge. The initially
charged object is still negatively charged but has less excess negative charge than before.
Charging by Induction
Aside from charging by friction and by conduction, an object can also be charged if they are
not in contact. This method is called charging by induction. Figure shows how charging by
induction occurs.

The diagram shows the process of how to charge an initial neutral metal sphere through
induction.

The ball is a conductor because it allows the movement of the charges to take place. The
presence of the negative rod makes the positive charges to be induced in the side of the
sphere near the rod. The negative rod, on the other hand, tends to stay at the opposite side
of the rod since negative charges tend to repel each other. When a grounded wire is
connected to the sphere, negative charges go directly to Earth, leaving the positive charges
behind. As the ground is disconnected and the rod is removed, the sphere is left as
positively charged.

Conservation of Charge
In general, methods of charging follow the law of conservation of charge. It states that the
algebraic sum of all the electric charges in any closed system is constant. For example,
when you rub a piece of plastic rod with fur, the rod becomes negatively charged, and the
fur becomes positively charged. The rod gains negative charge, and the fur acquires the
same magnitude of positive charge since it loses electrons. Hence the total electric charge
on the two bodies together does not change. In any charging process, the charge is not
created or destroyed; it is merely transferred from one body to another.
ROROROR
● There are two types of charges: positive and negative.
● Changes in charges are brought by the movement of negatively charged
particles.
● Forces between charges can be either repulsive or attractive. Like charges attract and
unlike charges repel.
● There are three methods of charging an object: charging by friction, charging by
conduction, and charging by induction.
○ Charging by friction can happen when you rub two objects with unequal
electron affinity. The object with higher electron affinity acquires the
negative charge, while the other object with lower electron affinity acquires
the positive charge.
○ Charging by conduction occurs when a charged object comes in contact
with a neutral object.
○ Charging by induction can happen due to induced charges. The charges in a
conducting object can be rearranged with the presence of an external
charged object.

A. Write T if the statement is true and F if false.

1. There are three types of charges: positive, negative, and neutral.

2. The only factor that affects the charge of objects when you rub them
is their electron affinity
3. Charges are not always conserved when you charge an object by
induction.
4. Protons are the charge carriers.
5. Conductors permit the movement of charges through it.
6. Charging by friction can take place even if two objects are not in
contact with each other.
7. In a neutral sphere, the number of positive charges is more than the
number of negative charges.
 8. Triboelectric series ranks materials based on their electron affinities.
9. The number of protons determines the element of an atom.
10. Protons and neutrons can freely move from one object to another.
11. Charges in a conducting sphere tend to stay at the surface.
12. A grounded wire transfers excess charges to Earth.
13. Unlike charges attract.
14. The algebraic sum of all the electric charges in any closed system is
constant.
15. Electrons hang out around the nucleus.

B. Using the letters A to E, arrange the following steps in charging an

object through induction.

1. Attach the metal sphere on an insulating stand.

2. Put the rod close to the sphere but not too close for the objects to touch.
3. The charges will be rearranged in the sphere.
4. Attach a grounded wire to the metal sphere.
5. Remove the grounded wire and move the rod away from the metal sphere. ___

C. Draw the charge distribution of the following neutrally charged

spheres.

1.

2.