The use of liquid metals for contact-charging experiments

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Abstract
The contact charging of insulators is often investigated by contacting the insulators with metals. However, the use of solid metal contactors introduces difficulties due to the hardness of the metal, the uncertain area of contact, and charge accumulation which occurs when contacts are repeated. These difficulties can be avoided by the use of liquid metals to contact the insulator. This paper reports an investigation of the use of liquid metals as contactors in contact-charging experiments. Liquid gallium may be more suitable for some measurements than mercury because, as the Appendix shows, the work function of mercury changes with time but that of gallium does not.

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