Fossil fuels have taken over and it is good for electricity but is terrible for Earth. As an alternative, there are plastic balls that when put together produce large amounts of static electricity that can power homes and be good for the Earth. The static electricity is similar to rubbing a balloon against your hair and then sticking it to a wall.
The team of scientists that found this, consists of the Department of Chemical Engineering Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Riga Technical University, The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technical Engineering, and the MESA+ institute. These scientists noticed that tightly packing a surface with the plastic balls and touching them to more of them, made a large amount of static electricity. This is because of triboelectricity [trahy-boh-i-lek-tris-i-tee], when two things that have a neutral amount of protons and electrons rub together. When this happens, some of the electrons go to one of the items (usually the one that has less) and when it gets rubbed backwards, the electrons stay which makes it negatively charged. The other item is positively charged.
Just like in the instance of rubbing a balloon on your hair, after you rub them rub them together, the electrons are in the balloon making it negatively charged. In order for the balloon to stick to the wall (which is originally neutral), the balloon pushes the electrons in the wall back farther into the wall and the wall becomes positively charged, causing the balloon to stick.
The balls have the same amount of protons and electrons, so when they rub together, the charge change is much greater, making a lot more static electricity. The triboelectric series shown below shows what things react the best with others. The farther apart the items are, the more static electricity is produced.
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https://newatlas.com/materials/battery-free-electricity/
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/03/250311122534.htm
https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-just-found-a-way-to-generate-power-from-tiny-beads/
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- https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/tiny-electricity-generating-plastic-beads-could-cut-global-fossil-fuel-reliance/ar-AA1ALCVX?apiversion=v2&noservercache=1&domshim=1&renderwebcomponents=1&wcseo=1&batchservertelemetry=1&noservertelemetry=1#:~:text=Now%2C%20in%20a%20bid%20to,energy%20than%20usual%2C%20through%20triboelectrification.
- https://www.lifetechnology.com/blogs/life-technology-science-news/new-method-plastic-beads-generate-electricity?srsltid=AfmBOoo4kh7OXVPMYdVVm62tPldYR0Qk7nuSvS33dQIQrlgUHWd9ywUZ
