ERC DynaMo - Dynamic charging at Moving contact lines

Water droplets sliding over a hydrophobic surface might experience a separation of charges in the droplet. Charges will then be transferred to the surface leaving the droplet itself electrically charged. In contrast to the well researched field of triboelectricity - charging by friction - we point our research to the field of slide-electrification. The charging effects are in general non-equilibrium phenomena. They depend essentially on microscopic and nanoscopic processes at he so called three phase contact line between solid, liquid and gas. Our goal is to understand these processes fundamentally and are out to explore the potential for technical applications.