Pauthenier equation (original) (raw)

The Pauthenier equation states that the maximum charge accumulated by a particle modelled by a small sphere passing through an electric field is given by: where is the permittivity of free space, is the radius of the sphere, is the electric field strength, and is a material dependent constant. For conductors, . For dielectrics: where is the relative permittivity. Low charges on nanoparticles and microparticles are stable over more than 103 second time scales.