Taylor Cone - Taylor Cone Formation

Taylor Cone Formation

When a small volume of electrically conductive liquid is exposed to an electric field, the shape of liquid starts to deform from the shape caused by surface tension alone. As the voltage is increased the effect of the electric field becomes more prominent and as it approaches exerting a similar amount of force on the droplet as the surface tension does a cone shape begins to form with convex sides and a rounded tip. This approaches the shape of a cone with a whole angle (width) of 98.6°. When a certain threshold voltage has been reached the slightly rounded tip inverts and emits a jet of liquid. This is called a cone-jet and is the beginning of the electrospraying process in which ions may be transferred to the gas phase. It is generally found that in order to achieve a stable cone-jet a slightly higher than threshold voltage must be used. As the voltage is increased even more other modes of droplet disintegration are found. The term Taylor cone can specifically refer to the theoretical limit of a perfect cone of exactly the predicted angle or generally refer to the approximately conical portion of a cone-jet after the electrospraying process has begun.