The Electrostatic Force Between a Partially Charged Dielectric Particle and a Conducting Plane

Abstract

AbstractUsing the reexpansion technique, the interaction between a conducting plane and a partially charged dielectric particle is studied for an axisymmetric case including the effects of the higher order polarization. The partial charge on a particle surface is seen to redistribute, apparently due to the polarization which occurs even though the particle is an insulator. The redistribution depends on the dielectric constant and on the gap between the particle and the conducting plane. In some instances, the charge redistributes on to the back side of the particle against the conducting plane, and as a result, the electrostatic interaction decreases simply by an increase of the dielectric constant. This is seen to be especially obvious in the case of a small initially charged area or patch that is positioned against a conducting plane, and when the particle is located in a gap of a certain size. The electrostatic interaction decreases with an increase of the dielectric constant within a certain range, even when the particle is in contact with the conducting plane, e.g., in the case of a small initially charged area. Because this range of the dielectric constant is equivalent to that of a normal polymer, these effects could result in a large error in the estimation of the electrostatic interactions in the case of the normal approximation of the contact electrification of a particle.