Edison revisited: Electro mechanical effects in wet porous materials

Abstract

Edison discovered that the coefficient of friction between a metallic plate and a porous material moistened with a dilute electrolyte could be modulated by an electric field. In experiments on the same kind of contacts (clays or chalks on carbon or metals) but without continuous tangential relative motion we measure two electro-mechanical effects at frequencies of the order of 10 kHz. An alternating field induces an alternating normal force between the porous material and the conducting base. The force is lagging by versus the field. A forced normal relative motion induces through the contact a current nearly in phase with the motion. For an explanation we start from Helmholtz theory of stationary electrophoretic phenomena. We present a model in which liquid motions obey the Helmholtz laws. It explains decently the phase relations between causes and effects, and approximately the values of the effects. In optical experiments on contacts between a wet clay and the transparent conducting coating of a glass plate we measure in the frequency range 1-100 kHz a modulation of reflecting power induced by an alternating potential. The decrease of reflecting power is lagging by an angle close to behind the field. We think the modulation observed is induced by a modulation of the amount of liquid in the film present between glass and clay. In friction experiments this alternating liquid lubrication acting exclusively at the very places where friction occurs may have significant effect.