Retreat behavior of a charged droplet for electrohydrodynamic inkjet printing

Abstract

The charged droplet retreat phenomenon in electrohydrodynamic inkjet printing is experimentally observed and theoretically explained. If the charge concentration of a droplet generated from a nozzle is high enough, Coulomb fission is generated a second time and the main droplet retreats to the meniscus on the nozzle. The retreat phenomenon is due to interactions between the charged droplet, the meniscus, and charges on the substrate. The Rayleigh limit is used to give a theoretical estimate of the amount of charge on the droplet and the meniscus during the retreat.