Is there any truth to using ions for dusting?

Factual Questions
1

I have a lot of electronic and computer equipment, so I am very skeptical about using charged ions to repel dust, as I have seen a lot of damage from static electricity and even carpeted rooms.

However, I have recently noticed that my electronics are the dustiest things in the room, and I have to extensively clean my computer, modem, router, TV, etc.

So my questions:

  1. Does using positive or negative ions affect dust?
  2. Why does electronic equipment attract so much dust?
2

Your electronics are typically dustier because most of them generate an air current nearby due either to the presence of fans, or convection. Because more air moves over these items than elsewhere in the room (and some places are not as detectable, like cloth surfaces), more dust is visible on them.

3

Ions and electrical fields will indeed influence where dust particles go and what they stick to. This is the principle between electrostatic precipitators. Generally, charged particles will travel in an electrical field, which is called “coulombic electrophoresis”. Uncharged particles will, too, if they are nondonductive and the first derivative of the field is not constant.

I am pretty sure that the pattern of dust buildup on the outside of a CRT-type monitor case reflects this at least in part, though there are also buoyant convective air currents and thermal gradients that create their own thermophoresis. I also think that the typical PC case builds up dust in certain areas almost entirely due to the forced cooling air flow.

Hot objects in general repel dust, and cool objects attract it. This is the mechanism that sometimes makes home exterior walls discolor in a way that highlights the studs on the indoor side, because they conduct more heat and cause cooler regions on the wall which attract particles.

You can use ionized air to neutralize both particles and surfaces, which reduces their coulombic attraction. Neutralized particles, by the way, do not each contain zero charge; rather, they adopt a Boltzmann equilibrium distribution in which zero charge is the most common charge state but still most particles carry a little positive or negative charge.

You can also use ionized air to help remove particles. But, once particles have sat there a while, they likely have much more van der Waals adhesion and perhaps humidity-driven capillary attachment than static electrical attraction, and the ionized air is probably usually not much help.