Give the principle of working of a Van de Graff generator. With the help of a labelled diagram, describe its construction and working. How is the leakage of charge minimised from the generator?

TheVan De Graaff Generator

A Van de Graaff generator is an electrostatic generator. American physicist, Robert J. Van de Graaff was the person behind this invention. It uses a moving belt that accumulates charge on a hollowmetalstructure. This structure has a design of aglobe, placed on the top of a column that is insulating in nature.

Thus, it creates a very high electric potential in the order of a few million volts. This results in a very large electric field. We use thiselectric fieldto accelerate charged particles.