Flexoelectricity

Recently, scientists for the first time, confirmed that ordinary ice is flexoelectric, generating electricity when bent — a discovery that could help explain how thunderstorms produce lightning.

  • Flexoelectricity is the phenomenon where bending or unevenly deforming a material generates electric charges, even if the material is not piezoelectric.
  • Flexoelectricity in ice helps explain thunderstorm electrification: collisions between ice particles and graupel generate charges that align with observed lightning patterns and polarity reversals in storm clouds.
  • This discovery provides a new, quantitative mechanism for how ice contributes to lightning, showing that even ordinary ice can act as a tiny generator when ....
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