linguistic:paraphrasing, structural:scholar_edition
Humidity

Generally, increased humidity (water in the air) leads to a decrease in the magnitude of triboelectric charging. The size of this effect varies greatly depending on the contacting materials; the decrease in charging ranges from up to a factor of 10 or more to very little humidity dependence. Some experiments find increased charging at moderate humidity compared to extremely dry conditions before a subsequent decrease at higher humidity. The most widespread explanation is that higher humidity leads to more water adsorbed at the surface of contacting materials, leading to a higher surface conductivity. The higher conductivity allows for greater charge recombination as contacts separate, resulting in a smaller transfer of charge. Another proposed explanation for humidity effects considers the case when charge transfer is observed to increase with humidity in dry conditions. Increasing humidity may lead to the formation of water bridges between contacting materials that promote the transfer of ions.