Triboelectrification, also called contact electrification, refers to the generation of electrical charge when two materials come into contact and then separate. The detailed molecular/atomic-scale mechanisms remain incompletely understood. In many cases, charge transfer has been attributed to electron or ion transfer, surface states, adsorbates, or mechanical deformation, but the specific contributions of redox-active molecular species at the interface are less well explored.

We investigate how redox-active molecules can mediate contact electrification between materials: i.e., whether molecules capable of facilitating charge transfer at interfaces during contact/separation, and how this process depends on the type of redox-active molecule pairs and humdity in the environment. We aim to provide mechanistic insight into the role of surface chemistry in contact electrification.

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Literature: 

N. Ranjan, Z. Izadi, P. Gaiser, M. B. Camarada, R. Sharma, A. Weber, M. Daub, Q. Hu, M. Fiederle, L. Mayrhofer, M. Moseler, A. Fischer*, M. Walter*, B. Esser* & B. N. Balzer*

Contact Electrification via Redox-Active Molecules

Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. (2025), https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202510031

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