Christopher Tidy wrote:

Hi folks,

This is a question for people with electrical knowledge, especially in the
field of electrostatics. It's also spontaneous. I'm not sure if I'm going
to build anything yet.

A few years back I built a Van de Graaff generator. It occurred to me at
the time that it would be really cool to transport the electric charge
using a liquid instead of a moving belt.

The pros in this business built pelletrons. They had chains made of
alternating metal and plastic links, instead of the Van d Graff belt. The
metal links could carry a lot more charge to the HV terminal. They charged
the chain with a modest HV power supply. The biggest in the world was at
Oak Ridge, TN, single-ended with a 50 MV terminal voltage. This one has a
magnet in the terminal that folds the ion path 180 degrees. Many other
tandem Van de Graff machines are straight-through, and have two chains and
the HV terminal is in the middle of the tank. Insulation is sulfur
hexafluoride.

Oil isn't going to carry much charge, unless you dope it with something,
maybe little particles of some polar stuff. Or, maybe, tiny wire fragments.
Then, the charge has to REACH the particles, THROUGH the oil, which I think
wrecks the whole idea. You don't want a very good insulator to interfere
with the charge transfer.

Jon