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Can a glass cup be used to collect positively-charged air ions from the Earth's atmosphere?

Physics Asked on June 27, 2021

I am wondering if the positively-charged air ions that are descending down from Earth’s Ionosphere can be collected using a glass cup. Since a glass cup will allow an electric field to pass through it, and since there is an electric field between the Earth’s Ionosphere and the ground, the positively-charged air ions descending down due to this electric field should be pulled into the glass cup and should start to accumulate within it.

The reason why I see the positively-charged ions accumulating within the cup is that as each positively-charged air ion enters the cup, a neutral air molecule within the cup will be pushed out of it to balance the air pressure within the cup.

The drawing below illustrates how I think the mixture of positively-charged air ions and neutral air molecules would look like within the glass cup after a period of time.

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This glass cup could be placed on top of a wooden table and this table could be placed in the middle of an open field, and ideally, this experiment would be done on a fair-weather day in which there would be very little to no wind blowing. Wind will ruin the experiment since it will stir up all the air molecules within the cup, resulting in the collected positively-charged air ions to exit the cup and neutral air molecules to enter into it.

My goal is to collect positively-charged air ions within the cup and to then place a piece of glass over the top of it and to then secure it in place using a strong non-conductive adhesive. I will then observe how strongly both negatively-charged and neutrally-charged materials will be attracted to the cup. I also want to find out how long (in minutes/hours/days) this glass cup will keep attracting materials to itself due to it having positively-charged air ions trapped inside of it.

Can a glass cup be used to collect positively-charged air ions from the Earth’s atmosphere?

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