Electrostatic characterization of cereal grains

The aim of the present study is to characterize the electrical and electrostatic properties of the four kinds of cereal grains namely barley, durum wheat, soft wheat and impurities. The samples were charged by exposing them to a negative corona discharge generated by a needle electrode, facing a grounded plate electrode. Surface potential decay and electric charge measurements were recorded in order to determinate the electrostatic behavior of the above mentioned cereals. The obtained results show that the considered cereals have almost identical electrostatic characteristics, while, the impurities are more resistant. The I-V curves have shown that barley is slightly different than durum and soft wheat, the last are very close.