I am trying to find a solid material that almost fully (since there is not a thing that can fully insulate electricity) blocks static charges moving from one layer to another. I know plastic is a good insulator but I want to know if there is a better insulator than plastic. I am going to use this material as a clothing for a project so the material shouldn't be easily breakable like glass.
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Grounded metal does a pretty good job. You can get chain mail and conductive fabrics. – Spehro Pefhany Aug 22 '14 at 18:38
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@SpehroPefhany However, isn't grounded metals have to stay in contact with soil so it is not appropriate for a clothing material. If it is not what you've meant, could you give me an example to grounded metal? – FarStar Aug 22 '14 at 18:45
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2If you can explain what you are actually trying to do I might be able to. – Spehro Pefhany Aug 22 '14 at 18:46
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Does it have to be breathable? – venny Aug 22 '14 at 18:46
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@SpehroPefhany I want to use this particular material to block two layers which have static charges in them and also these layers will be made to be worn by someone so the insulating material should also match the requirements for a decent clothing. – FarStar Aug 22 '14 at 18:51
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What does "block two layers which have static charges in them" mean exactly-- can you give an example? – Spehro Pefhany Aug 22 '14 at 18:52
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@venny No it doesn't need to be breathable since it won't be worn like a mask and also it won't cover much of the body. It just will be an insulating layer between two clothings. – FarStar Aug 22 '14 at 18:54
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@SpehroPefhany It needs to prevent static charges be transferred from one clothing to another. – FarStar Aug 22 '14 at 18:56
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What does the theory say? Is electrostatic induction affected by material properties? – venny Aug 22 '14 at 19:23
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@FarStar At the moment, your question is unclear. Could you post a sketch of you proposed setup? What are you trying to achieve? Why would someone wear clothing with high voltage? In other words, what is the use case? – Nick Alexeev Aug 22 '14 at 19:42
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I'm sorry, but this is a bad idea. The amount of static electricity you would need would to have any significant amount of force would be in the megavolts range, and there are very few if any materials that could resist that in a thin layer. Not to mention the fact that a failure would kill your astronauts and/or destroy the sensitive electronics of a spacecraft. – Chriszuma Aug 22 '14 at 20:28
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@Chriszuma I know so I seperated the suit into several parts which would prevent both the harm of that big of voltage and the force difference applied on the neck and feet area. On the other hand, the idea is farsighted. It would probably be best to be used in space age which there would be better technology than now's. – FarStar Aug 22 '14 at 20:35
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Anyway, can we discuss if there is an insulating material like I desribed now? – FarStar Aug 22 '14 at 20:38
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CROSSPOST ALERT: http://physics.stackexchange.com/q/132151/20848 – Olin Lathrop Aug 22 '14 at 22:04
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@OlinLathrop The other post was deemed off-topic in Physics where they are not allowed to talk about actually real things, apparently. Posting the question here in engineering allows real world discussion. [[And yes, I'm who you'd expect me to be but I seem to be trapped in the body (or mind) of user 10162 and can't get out at present. Working on it.]] – ATCSVOL Aug 23 '14 at 05:07
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@OlinLathrop Yes, since this network is the correct place to discuss about I reposted it here. I think it is not abuse of rules. – FarStar Aug 23 '14 at 07:30
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You posted to both places before either one was closed, so yes, that is abusing the system. – Olin Lathrop Aug 24 '14 at 01:13
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@user: I don't know why you think I should be expecting you are. One USERxxx user is mostly like another, which is to say a cowardly internet wannabee. – Olin Lathrop Aug 24 '14 at 01:16
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This isn't a direct answer to your question, but answers what you are apparently trying to do according to one on of your comments.
Basically, that's not going to work. Even if you had a perfect insulator, the problem will be arcing thru the air (it seems you mean this for long term use inside the spacecraft where there is air). Figure out how many Coulombs it will require at a reasonable distance to create the force you want. Now calculate the voltage between the electrodes and divide that by the distance. The resulting E field strength will be way over the breakdown limit for air.
This is a fundamental enough limitation, but there will be many other problems with highly charged objects floating around in a spaceship.
Olin Lathrop
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Would there be a way to prevent electrical breakdown for this type of occasion? – FarStar Aug 22 '14 at 21:19
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Not unless you can teach the astronauts to breath something like Flouronert instead of air. – Olin Lathrop Aug 22 '14 at 21:25
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I've made a rough calculation for electric field and unless the distance between the electrodes is above about 5 meters the limit of air's electrical breakdown which is 3×10^6 V/m won't be exceeded. Am I right? – FarStar Aug 22 '14 at 21:42
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Currently the only material I know of that would be close to meeting this application is the rubber used in high-voltage maintenance gloves. McMaster sells them, and the $500 pair is rated to 36,000 volts:
Chriszuma
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