Investigation of the charging characteristics of micrometer sized droplets based on parallel plate capacitor model

Langmuir. 2013 Feb 5;29(5):1676-82. doi: 10.1021/la3046737. Epub 2013 Jan 23.

Abstract

The charging characteristics of micrometer sized aqueous droplets have attracted more and more attentions due to the development of the microfluidics technology since the electrophoretic motion of a charged droplet can be used as the droplet actuation method. This work proposed a novel method of investigating the charging characteristics of micrometer sized aqueous droplets based on parallel plate capacitor model. With this method, the effects of the electric field strength, electrolyte concentration, and ion species on the charging characteristics of the aqueous droplets was investigated. Experimental results showed that the charging characteristics of micrometer sized droplets can be investigated by this method.