Question on Electricity and Electrons

[amlish]

so my "professional" high school physics teacher began our intro with electricity by telling us to do notes...and failed to answer basic physics questions so here is the product of my curiosity

 

It states that, electricity is produced by the electron transfer between objects in a basic sense. My question is...where do these electrons come from? i mean...sure it says atoms, but like..don't atoms hold their electrons tightly? this is the entire basis of chemistry that electron transfers between atoms influence reactions.. so in a way...when, for example friction, we rub things to produce a charge, we separate atoms and electrons. Doesn't this degenerate the substance due to the loss/separation of electrons and cause reactions between other atoms in the surroundings? because by this rationale, the substance would eventually degenerate into nothing and disappear..

 

off coarse none of what i described actually happens in nature... i think...so what is the truth about how it works? feel free to include insulators and conductors if necessary

 

do you atleast get the general idea of what i mean?

 

Thanks alot.

[swansont]

Some materials, when collected into a solid, share their "outer" electrons easily, and these are free to move around in the material. These are metals, which are good conductors.

 

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Solids/band.html

[Externet]

Hope this does not confuse you more, but you should read it :

 

http://www.eskimo.com/~billb/miscon/whatis.html