Coagulation of nanoparticles in a low-pressure radio frequency plasma was studied by means of a detailed numerical model for the spatiotemporal evolution of the nanoparticle-plasma system. Simulation results indicate that the occurrence of coagulation to any significant degree in such systems requires the existence of two effects: first, gas-phase nucleation is not limited to a brief burst, but rather continues in regions that are sufficiently free of nanoparticles; and second, coagulation coefficients for collisions between neutral and negatively charged nanoparticles are enhanced by the image potential induced in the neutral particle. Accounting for these effects, coagulation is predicted to be dominated by coagulation between very small (approximately 1 or 2 nm in diameter) neutral particles and larger negatively charged particles that are trapped in the plasma. Coagulation ceases when the spreading of the nanoparticle cloud across the plasma quenches gas-phase nucleation.
The charge distributions of an improved opposed flow unipolar diffusion charger were measured using a tandem differential mobility analyzer (DMA) set up in a size range of approximately 20-400 nm. The charger is intended to be used in a portable aerosol sizer to measure particle size distributions. The determined charge distributions were represented by lognormal distributions, and a set of equations and coefficients was developed to calculate the charge distributions. These equations can be easily implemented in software for size distribution measurements. The agreement between the mathematically derived and measured charge distributions is very good, with regression coefficients R 2 > 0.96. The investigations showed that approximately 55% of 20-nm particles remain uncharged, while up to 25 elementary charges need to be considered for multiple charge correction of 400-nm particles. Comparison with the Fuchs theory delivered satisfying agreement with the measured average charge levels, but charge distributions cannot be described by the Fuchs theory, likely caused by the charger geometry.
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