In this study, nanosized (<100 nm) aerosol particles with high mass concentrations for inhalation tests were generated by a spray-drying technique with combining Coulomb explosion and rapid evaporation of the droplets. Under typical spray-drying conditions, aerosol particles with average diameter of 50-150 nm were prepared from a suspension of NiO nanoparticles with a primary diameter of 15-30 nm. Under the Coulomb explosion method, the sprayed droplets were charged by being mixed with unipolar ions to break up the droplets, which resulted in the generation of smaller aerosol particles with diameters of 15-30 nm and high number concentrations. Under the rapid evaporation method, the droplets were heated immediately after being sprayed to avoid inertial impaction on the flow path due to shrinkage of the droplet, which increased the mass concentration of the aerosol particles. The combination of the Coulomb explosion and rapid evaporation of droplets resulted in the generation of aerosol particles with sizes less than 100 nm and mass concentrations greater than 1 mg/m 3 ; these values are often necessary for inhalation tests. The aerosols generated under the combined method exhibited good long-term stability for inhalation tests. The techniques developed in this study were also applied to other metal oxide nanoparticle materials and to fibrous multiwalled carbon nanotubes.
The assessment of the environmental effects of natural radionuclides contained in fly ash released from a coal-fired power plant was carried out and the following results were obtained. Mean concentrations of U, Th and K in 28 kinds of domestic and foreign coals were 1.0 ppm, 3.3 ppm and 2300 ppm, respectively. A good correlation between U and Th concentrations appears evident. Natural radionuclide concentrations of bottom and fly ashes were approximately equal in both ashes, and the values were the same as those calculated by concentration in coal divided by ash content. Release rates of 40K and radionuclides of each decay chain of U or Th were evaluated in the range of 2 to 40,000 pCi/sec for model coal-fired power plants of 1000 MW and 250 MW. The natural radionuclide concentration in air in a plume at the maximum concentration point was 5 X 10(-9) to 5 X 10(-3) pCi/m3, and these values were below 1/200 of those of natural origin.
A thermoreflectance temperature measuring system was developed with the aim to realize monitoring of the silicon wafer surface temperature during plasma etching. The thermoreflectance detects variations in temperature through changes in optical reflectance. To overcome such difficulties as low sensitivity and limitation in installation space and position for in situ measurements, the differential thermoreflectance utilizing two orthogonal polarizations was introduced. Noise such as fluctuations in the incident beam intensity or changes of loss in the optical path would affect both polarizations equally and would not affect the measurement. The large angle of incidence of the beam allows measurement to be performed from outside the viewing ports of existing plasma etching process chambers through the gap between the plasma electrode and the silicon wafer. In this article, an off-line measurement result is presented, with results for bare wafers as well as for wafers with metal depositions. A prototype system developed for tests in plasma etching facilities in a production line is described.
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