The surface states model is successful in predicting many salient features of charge transfer in insulative materials, which is critical to electrophotography. This paper will discuss how the surface chemistry controls the physics, the chemical potentials, and how it fits the surface states model. The interrelationship of acid-base Ka/Kb values of the materials in contact, measured by IGC (inverse gas chromatography), the HOMO (highest occupied molecular orbitals) and LUMO (lowest unoccupied molecular orbitals) and their excited states calculated using DFT (density functional theory) quantum mechanical modeling, the chemical potentials measured by the Kelvin method, and triboelectric charging data are studied. It will be shown that a precursor complex of the contacting materials, prior to the charge transfer event, can be calculated by DFT to predict both qualitatively and quantitatively triboelectric charging. The work focuses on PTFE, Kynar and PMMA polymers, as well as silica, titania and alumina.
Richard P. N. Veregin, Michael S. Hawkins, Qingbin Li, Sergey Gusarov, Andriy Kovalenko, "Linking the Chemistry and Physics of Electronic Charge Transfer in Insulators: Theory and Experiment" in Proc. IS&T Int'l Conf. on Digital Printing Technologies and Digital Fabrication (NIP28), 2012, pp 360 - 363, https://doi.org/10.2352/ISSN.2169-4451.2012.28.1.art00024_2