Aerodynamically stabilized Taylor cone jets

Abstract

We introduce a way to produce steady micro/nano-liquid jets via electrohydrodynamic elds together with co- owing gas streams. We study the dripping-jetting transition of this con guration theoretically through a global stability analysis as a function of the governing parameters involved. A balance between the local radial acceleration to the surface tension gradient, the mass conservation and the energy balance equations enable us to derive two coupled scaling laws that predict both the minimum jet diameter and its maximum velocity. The theoretical prediction provides a single curve that describes not only the numerical computations but also experimental data from the literature for cone-jets. Additionally, we performed a set of experiments to verify what parameters in uence the jet length. We adopt a very recent model for capillary jet length to our con guration by combining electrohydrodynamic e ects with the gas ow through an equivalent liquid pressure. Due to the diameters below 1 micrometer and high speeds attainable in excess of 100 m/s, this concept has the potential to be utilized for structural biology analyses with X-ray free-electron lasers at megahertz repetition rates as well as other applications.