Measurement and control of triboelectrically charged silica and glassy carbon particles

In this study, a particle trajectory analysis and charging measurements of triboelectrically charged silica and glassy carbon particles were conducted to investigate the effects of charging gas velocity and particle size on triboelectrical charging characteristics. A particle motion analysis system (PMAS) was used to measure charged particle motion information in the separation chamber with an applied uniform electric field, and the particle charging amount was calculated from the particle size and the electrostatic mobility was determined by the PMAS. The test system consisted of a particle generator, a spiral-type tribocharger made of a copper tube, and a particle motion analysis system to measure the particle size and velocity. The experiments were conducted with test particles of silica and glassy carbon and the average charging gas velocities of 6, 10, 15, 20 m/s to analyze the effect on particle charging. As a result, the silica and glassy carbon particles acquired negative and positive charges, respectively, due to the differences in the work functions, and the charging gas velocity effect on particle charge was approximately linear with an increasing velocity yielding a higher average particle charge and wider distribution.