Technological improvements in electrostatic spraying and its impact to agriculture during the last decade and future research perspectives - A review

An important aspect of research in electrostatic force field applications to liquid sprays involves pesticide spraying, painting, printing, thin film coating, medical, Nano biotechnology, transportation etc. The desired attributes of such spraying are uniform deposition onto both directly exposed (adaxial) and obscured (abaxial) crop surfaces which minimizes the off-target losses of active ingredients to soil, water, atmosphere and provides economic pest control. This paper presents an overview of electrostatic spraying technologies in the field of agriculture and perishable fruits/food products emphasizing the key role of advanced electrostatic spraying instrumentation and chronicles the scientific innovations in the parlance of providing cost effective and reliable commercial systems along with an insight on the needs of future research perspectives and directives.