Surfactants Screen Slide Electrification

Water drops spontaneously accumulate charges when they move on hydrophobic dielectric surfaces by slide electrification. Slide electrification generates electricity with possible applications on tiny devices. The potential of up to 1 KV generated by slide electrification alters wetting and drop motion. Therefore, it is important to know the factors that affect slide electrification. To find out how surfactants affect slide electrification, we measured drop charges of aqueous drops containing cationic CTAB, anionic SDS, and neutral C₈E₃ sliding on different hydrophobic surfaces. The result is: addition of surfactant significantly reduces the spontaneous charging of moving water drops. Based on zeta potential measurements, confocal microscopy of deposited surface-active dyes and drop impact studies, we propose that several factors contribute to this suppression of charge separation: (1) Surfactants tend to lower the contact angles, which reduces charge separation. (2) Surfactant adsorption at the solid-liquid interface can reduce the density of primary ions, particularly for anionic surfactants. (3) Anionic and neutral surfactants are mostly transferred to the liquid-air interface at the rear of the sliding drop, retaining primary ions within the drop. (4) Deposited cationic surfactant directly reduces the charge of the drop.