A kinetic model was introduced on the assumption that the charging process is a reversible transfer of charge, and the kinetics of the tribocharging of model two-component developers was studied using a quaternary ammonium-type CCA. A linear relationship between the inverse of saturated tribocharge (
qe)and toner-to-carrier mass ratio (
mt/
mc) automatically followed from the kinetic model. The reciprocal of the intercept on the 1/
qe axis was, for the first time, found to be the charge which could be transferred to the carrier when no reversion of the transfer of charge occurred from the carrier to the toner, named the
limiting charge. The ratio of the normal and the reverse tribocharging rate constants (
k1/
k-1=
K) was shown to be constant and intrinsic for the combination of materials. It was showed that the inverse dependence of
qe and
mt/
mc derived from the kinetic model was formally consistent with that from the surface-state model. The charging-rate constant (
kobs) was for the first time found to be expressed in the Arrhenius equation, and the apparent activation energies (
Ea) obtained were similar to the van der Waals binding energy. The kinetic study proved that
qe was independent of
kobs and
limiting charge was independent of the number of the charge-generation site and was dependent on the solid-state properties of CCA. Their small activation energy led to the conclusion that the counter-ion transfer is most favorable in quaternary-ammonium-type CCA.
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