The way to reduce electrical charge of a droplet dispensed from a pipette tip

Abstract

Recently, our group reported that an any aqueous droplet dispensed from a pipette tip has considerable amount of electrical charge. This natural electrical charge of a droplet could cause undesired, unfamiliar experimental results. Since the origin of the charge of a droplet is related to the pipette tip material, we modified the inside material of the pipette tip with poly(dimethylsiloxane)-graphene nanocomposites. The droplets dispensed from the modified pipette tip has lower electrical charge than that from the common pipette tip. We compare the experimental results with the droplets from common pipette tip and modified pipette tip. This fluid dynamics video includes the principle of the spontaneous electrification of the droplet and the results of the droplet in oil experiments.