Alternating Current Electrospraying

Electrospraying has attracted the attention of many researchers, ranging from analytical chemists to physicists, not only because of the rich physics associated with it, but also due to its wide-ranging applicability. Therefore, considerable research has been devoted to exploring this interfacial phenomenon. However, there still are areas of electrospraying that have remained unexplored. Until recently, significantly less effort had been directed toward electrospraying with an alternating current (ac) electric field in comparison to electrospraying with direct current (dc) field. This article comes as an attempt to summarize the work done on ac electrospraying in the authors’ group. A classification of this behavior into different frequency domains is provided, with an underlying mechanism that leads to physical features distinct from dc electrospraying. Potential uses of ac electrospraying, which cannot be realized by its dc counterpart, are also discussed.