Taylor cone

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Photo of a meniscus of polyvinyl alcohol in aqueous solution, which forms a thread-like structure out of a Taylor cone. The basis is the electrospinning process .
Model of the geometry in the Taylor cone, which arises from the hydromechanical force relationships.

The Taylor cone (also Taylor cone ) is the conical deformation of a liquid surface that is exposed to an electric field . The deformation results from an equilibrium of forces between gravity , surface tension , internal hydrostatic pressure , external gas pressure and the electrical force resulting from the applied electrical field . Geoffrey Ingram Taylor was the first scientist to describe the cone geometry using a static model and came to the conclusion that the half-angle in the equilibrium of forces is 49.3 °.

If a certain critical field strength is exceeded, the Taylor cone becomes unstable and a thin liquid thread (so-called jet ) forms at the tip of the cone , which immediately after the emission breaks down into a spray of fine, highly unipolar charged drops ( electrospray ). This method is often used in practice to generate monodisperse aerosols (gas-borne droplets with a narrow size distribution) or ions . The electrospray ionization (ESI) is a Standardionisationsmethode in the mass spectrometry .

The Legendre polynomial can be used to compute the Taylor angle.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Taylor GI: Disintegration of water droplets in an electric field. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series A. 1964 (280), 383-397. doi : 10.1098 / rspa.1964.0151 ISSN  0080-4630

See also