Water, salt and a green Jello electret....

[vis viva]

I'm asking the question because I'm interested in learning more about how ionic compounds behave in and around electric fields. I'm not actually going to make the proposed electret. The color of the Jello is irrelevant, and Jello may not yield an everlasting electrect, so it's more about the principle itself.

 

[scottdave]

It looks like an electret is made using dielectric (basically non-conducting) material. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electret

I think the salt water might still conduct after the Jell-O has congealed. This would be something interesting to test. Why a fish tank? How about try a smaller scale container first?

 

[vis viva]

It looks like an electret is made using dielectric (basically non-conducting) material.

I'd say 'some' elecrects are made of dielectric material.

I think the salt water might still conduct after the Jell-O has congealed.

'congealed' - Yes! that's the correct term, I was looking for that word, thank you.

Yes it probably would, but at the moment it doesn't matter as long as a dipole is formed, that would be the first success criteria.

This would be something interesting to test. Why a fish tank? How about try a smaller scale container first?

Because it was funny (at the time of writing) to imagine a 300L green wobbly salty electret on my desk. But yes obviously any container would do as long as it can withstand the electric field.