What are the limiting factors on the positive charge of a solid body? If I assume a 'perfect insulator' environment that would not exchange charge with my solid body, I would guess that I can remove electrons from the body until it's internal chemical bond structure made by them breaks down and the body disintegrates. Are there any other other limits that would be hit first? How to calculate the charge at which the body breaks away?
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According to http://erps.spacegrant.org/uploads/images/images/iepc_articledownload_1988-2007/2009index/IEPC-2009-010.pdf , "The electric charge on a microparticle is limited by two processes which become important at very high electric field strength on the particle surface... For negative charges electron field emission begins at $|E_p| > 10^9 Vm^{−1}$. For positive charges field evaporation destroys the particle, if $|E_p| > 10^{10} Vm^{−1}$. In case of materials with low tensile strength or fluffy grains, charges of both signs are able to fragment the particles (“Coulomb explosion”)... already at lower field strengths." |
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