Properties of Static Electricity

What Determines the Amount of Static Electricity Generated?

We now understand the mechanism behind the occurrence of static electricity. So, what determines the amount of static electricity generated in any given situation?
Generally, there are a variety of influencing factors. These include material composition, surface area, environmental conditions and the state of the contact surfaces. The chart below is a portion of the Triboelectric Series. This chart shows the static buildup tendencies of various materials.
A chart that shows static buildup tendencies by type of material is called a "static buildup array”.

Static Buildup Array

When two materials from the static buildup array are touched together, materials nearer the top of the graph will tend to have a positive charge, while materials nearer the bottom of the array will tend to have a negative charge.


However, the order of this static buildup array is not necessarily reproducible.
It should be noted that the order will change depending on the influence of environmental conditions, the state of the contact surfaces, and other factors.

This has been a very basic explanation on the fundamentals of static electricity.
There is still a large amount of information on static electricity that you should be familiar with.