Twenty-first century research needs in electrostatic processes applied to industry and medicine

From the early 20th century Nobel Prize winning (1923) experiments with charged oil droplets, resulting in the discovery of the elementary electronic charge by Robert Millikan, to the early 21st century Nobel Prize (2002) awarded to John Fenn for his invention of electrospray ionization mass spectroscopy and its applications to proteomics, electrostatic processes have been successfully applied to many areas of industry and medicine. Generation, transport, deposition, separation, analysis, and control of charged particles involved in the four states of matter: solid, liquid, gas, and plasma are of interest in many industrial and biomedical processes. In this paper, we briefly discuss some of the applications and research needs involving charged particles in industrial and medical applications including: (1) generation and deposition of unipolarly charged dry powder without the presence of ions or excessive ozone, (2) control of tribocharging process for consistent and reliable charging, (3) thin film (<25μm) powder coating and powder coating on insulative surfaces, (4) fluidization and dispersion of fine powders, (5) mitigation of Mars dust, (6) effect of particle charge on the lung deposition of inhaled medical aerosols, (7) nanoparticle deposition, and (8) plasma/corona discharge processes. A brief discussion on the measurements of charged particles and suggestions for research needs are also included.