The surface charge in electrospraying:: Its nature and its universal scaling laws

The electrospraying of liquids in steady cone-jet mode follows a well-defined EHD mechanism described and quantified in this work using a hybrid experimental-numerical technique: a collection of emitted microjet shapes corresponding to several liquids and different flow rates have been digitized and introduced in a quasi-one-dimensional analytical model. A universal Value of the surface charge on the liquid microjet and the resulting charged droplets, independent of their size and of the liquid permittivity, has been found. The surface charge is shown to be always in equilibrium, being the liquid bulk quasi-neutral. From these findings, we finally present a consistent general scaling of all EHD variables involved which is experimentally verified. In this scaling the electric current I and the characteristic microjet radius R-o, are both proportional to the square root of the emitted flow rare, Q(1/2), and independent of the liquid permittivity epsilon(i). (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.