Influence of Plant Leaf Moisture Content on Retention of Electrostatic-Induced Droplets

Abstract

Agricultural electrostatic spraying can help to reduce the threat of pesticides to human health and the environment. However, the influence of the law of leaf water content on electrostatic spraying has not been studied. In this study, we used leaf water content as an evaluation index of electrostatic spraying technology and verified the correlation between leaf water content and leaf capacitance value by statistical methods in order to achieve in vivo measurements of leaf water content in relation to tomato, pepper, and wheat crop leaves. Using these in vivo measurements of leaf water content and retention, we demonstrate that the retention of electrostatic droplets on the leaves of all three crops increases with increasing water content; the retention per unit area of leaves increased by 6.1 mg/cm2, an increase of 7.29%. Increasing the electrostatic spray voltage (10~30 kV) enhances the retention of droplets on the leaves of the crops, with a maximum increase of 6.1. The retention of non-electrostatic droplets decreases with increasing water content; retention at the lowest water content was 1.103~1.131 times greater than at the highest water content. This study has implications for research related to improving the retention of electrostatic droplets in leaves.