Droplet Conductivity Strongly Influences Bump and Crater Formation on Electrodes during Charge Transfer

Aqueous droplets acquire charge when they contact electrodes in high voltage electric fields, but the exact mechanism of charge transfer is not understood. Recent work by Elton et al. revealed that electrodes are physically pitted during charge transfer with aqueous droplets. The pits are believed to result when a dielectric breakdown arc occurs as a droplet approaches the electrode and the associated high current density transiently locally melts the electrode, leaving distinct crater-like deformations on the electrode surface. Here we show that the droplet conductivity strongly modulates the pitting morphology but has little effect on the amount of charge transferred. Electron and atomic force microscopy shows that deionized water droplets yield no observable deformations, but as the salt concentration in the droplet increases above 10–3 M, the deformations become increasingly large. The observed intensity of the flash of light released during the dielectric breakdown arc also increases with droplet conductivity. Surprisingly, despite the large difference in pitting morphology and corresponding arc intensity, droplets of any conductivity acquire similar amounts of charge. These results suggest that the energy transferred during dielectric breakdown is primarily responsible for electrode pitting rather than the total amount of energy released during charge transfer.