Systematic charging of water droplets produced by break-up of liquid jets and filaments

Abstract

The paper describes three separate experiments to elucidate the mechanisms responsible for the charging of droplets that result from the controlled break-up of small jets, threads and filaments of liquid. The results of these experiments are consistent with those of Iribarne and Mason on bursting bubbles and reveal that, in the absence of external fields and contact potentials, the droplets acquire systematic and consistent charges, the magnitude of which depend largely on the time for disruption and the concentration of the solution but not on the ionic species. The results find a reasonable quantitative explanation in terms of the two mechanisms proposed by Iribarne and Mason, one acting during formation of the jet and the other during the break-up stage, but both producing charge separation by the disruption of the electrical double layer that exists at the surface of a polar liquid.