Keeping car clean with static electricity
If you statically charge your car, the first thing that happens is than any speck of dust in the vicinity is attracted to the charged surface. Notice how dusty the face of your TV CRT becomes after a while?
Theoretically, after first being attracted to the surface, upon contact the dust mote should become charged to the voltage of the charged surface. Since like charges repel each other, the dust mote should then be ejected from the surface. However, my observation is that stuff just sticks to the surface. Apparently, the repelling force of the like charges is insufficient to overcome the residual "stickiness" (that's a technical term you don't need to worry about understanding) of the dust to the surface. So it just waits for you to get annoyed enough to wipe it off, like the dust on your TV faceplate.
The technique used in clean rooms to avoid dust being attracted to semiconductor wafer surfaces is to use an ion generator to spray ions around the region to be protected. This works for semicondustor chips in a lab (notice how much static charge generating equipment ends up in surplus stores), but may not work for an automobile due to sheer size and square footage to be covered and wind blowing the ions away. I'm not sure how it works, but I believe it has to do with the charged particles of both polarities attracting and neutralizing oppositely charged dust particles so they are not attracted to the objects at ground potential. Then the unused ions drift away, doing no harm except perhaps creating a little unexpected euphoria or depression somewhere.
This technique requires the use of AC high voltage so that ions of both polarities are produced (since you don't know the polarity of the charge on each of the dust particles). The high voltage is connected to a "rake" of needles mounted uniformely along a bar connected to the high voltage source. The rake may be enclosed in a tube that also conveys air past the rake to blow the ions out over the problem area and to protect the curious from the high voltage. Needles are used because the small radius of the tip results in a high potential gradient at the tip thet aids in emitting the charges.
The high voltage generator for this type of application is typically a 6 or 7 KV transformer with a current rating of just a few ma. IT MAY ALSO HAVE A BUILT IN CURRENT LIMITER (RESISTOR) TO PREVENT LETHAL OR PAINFUL SHOCK! Don't just use any high voltage transformer, like a neon sign transformer, unless you know exactly what you are doing and its hazards.
Try a google search for "static eliminators," or "static control," or the like to find suppliers and read their tutorials on the subject. I THINK I remember seeing high voltage static control transformers offered several years ago in the catalog of C&H Sales Company in Pasadena.
Be safe.
awright