In 1750, Jean-Antoine Nollet noted that “a person, electrified by connection to a high-voltage generator, would not bleed normally if he were to cut himself; blood would spray from the wound.” This was one of the first observations of a phenomenon known as electrospray. The phenomenon occurs when a sufficiently strong electric field is applied to a fluid meniscus resulting in a spray of fluid from the apex. In 2012, members of the Ion Space Propulsion lab demonstrated a novel method of electrospray using ferrofluids (liquids that can be manipulated with the use of magnets). When these fluids are in the presence of a magnetic field, the fluid interface naturally deforms into a series of peaks and valleys, referred to as the Rosensweig instability. At the tip of these peaks, the electric field is amplified and electrospray emission can be achieved. The combined electric- and magnetic instabilities changes electrospray behavior.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Any reuse must credit the author(s) and provide a link back to this page.