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If somebody wants to charge a cooper sphere made of N atoms, what is the maximum positive charge the sphere can reach? Same question about a negative charge.

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For example if the sphere is small, made of 100 - 1000 atoms, can all atoms remain without the electron on the last layer or even without some electrons from the deeper layers?

Note: The indicated answer is for the case when someone wants to charge the sphere with a negative charge and it contain just a qualitative explanation.

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    Hi Robert. We encourage site members to do a quick search to see if their question has already been asked. If the (obviously related) question I've linked doesn't give you then answer you want perhaps you could edit your question to indicate what speficially hasn't been addressed by the previous question. – John Rennie Nov 14 '15 at 08:32
  • The answer you indicated is for the case when someone wants to charge the sphere with a negative charge and it contain just a qualitative explanation. –  Nov 14 '15 at 08:53
  • Are you specifically asking about particles of copper small enough that we can no longer consider them as having the bulk properties of the metal? – John Rennie Nov 14 '15 at 08:59
  • Is there a formula that gives the maximum quantity of charge (negative or positive) a cooper sphere of radius $R$ can reach? The formula can be for a microscopic or macroscopic sphere. –  Nov 14 '15 at 09:07
  • This is why we need a "what-if.xkcd" tag. – Carl Witthoft Nov 14 '15 at 14:51
  • For large spheres the limit is the charge blowing the whole thing apart, not each atom's ability to lose an electron. The charges will concentrate to the edge and try to pull on the metal outward. – Kevin Kostlan Aug 13 '16 at 16:48

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