Study finds ordinary water droplets can spontaneously acquire charge and corrode metal
Researchers demonstrated that water drops sitting on various hydrophobic and metallic surfaces can spontaneously build up electrical charge without any external triggering, and that this self-generated charge is sufficient to accelerate corrosion of underlying copper and other metals. The experiments used engineered materials such as PFOTS-coated quartz and ITO glass, Teflon-coated copper, and common items like PVC boards and copper foil tape to show the effect across different surfaces.