Mitigating jitter in droplet stream by uniform charging

Abstract

Monodisperse droplets induced by Plateau–Rayleigh instability of liquid jet are widely applied. Due to spatial jitter, the spacing between droplets becomes uneven as the working distance increases. We found that the jitter can be ameliorated by uniformly charging the droplets. Under the electrostatic forces, the droplets align at uniform spacing over a long distance. Nevertheless, radial jitter emerges when the charging voltage is too high. The effect of charging on the jitter was modeled and validated by experiments. A recommended charging parameters configuration is given considering a trade-off between axial and radial jitter to obtain evenly distributed droplets.